Naruto: Demons and blood
by JinzoLord
Summary: Naruto accepts a strange mission concerning a stolen sword. On the way he meets a mysterious ninja called "Treb". What dangers lies ahead of them? For teens.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A new ally.

Haaa, today is a beautiful day, Naruto thought to himself. Just resting with some ramen, watching the clouds. Nothing could ruin this…

'Hey, Naruto! Get off your lazy bud!' Well, almost nothing.

'What is it?' Naruto asked.

It was Sakura, looking gorgeous as ever.

'You have to go to Tsunade, she has a mission for you.'

'Do I have to?'

'Yes, you have to! She said it is important.'

'Really?! Wait, this isn't another D ranked mission, is it?'

'I already said it was important. Now go, before I punch you there.'

He sighted. 'so much for my day off…'

In less than 5 minutes, he arrived at the office of Tsunade.

'A Naruto, your finally here,' Tsunade said.

'Yup, what's this 'important' mission you have for me?'

'Well, there is this thief who has stolen something from our client, it is a ancient sword that belonged to the Hyugaa family. Your job is to get the sword back and capture or kill the culprit who has stolen this sword. his mission is clacefied as an A-mission. '

'Huh? A-mission? Why is it a A-mission?'

'Because the thief has killed anyone who attempted to take the blade.'

'Then why are you letting me do such a dangerous mission?'

'For two reasons. 1, you will be getting help from an experienced Chuunin

2, because the thief has the Byakugan. You have experience fighting the Byakugan.'

He toughed back of his battle with Neji, but that was quite a while ago.

'That's all I need to now, where's my partner?' answered Naruto with a grin.

'He is at the front gate.'

'Ok, I'm off'

'One more thing Naruto.'

'What?'

'Please be very careful' she said with a serious face.

'Don't worry, you know me, right?'

'That's why I'm saying it.'

'Wauw, thanks a lot.' Naruto went into the direction of the gate. After some walking he finally arrived at the front gate.

'Your late,' a young man said to him.

'Are you my partner?' Naruto asked.

'Yes, that's right. The name is Treb, a pleasure to meet you mister?'

'Naruto' he quickly responded. 'My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I wanna be Hokage some day. Believe it!'

'Okaay, good for you.'

Naruto took a closer look at his partner. He had silver hair and grey eyes, a pretty muscular build and was wearing a gray training uniform. He also had an extraordinary face. Luckily Sakura or Ino aren't around, or they would definitely have intrest for this guy.

'Hmm? Is there something on my face?' Treb asked.

'Oh no, it's nothing.' Naruto said with a grin. 'So, how do we find this guy?'

'He was last spotted 12 degrees east from here, we will start there.'

Okay Naruto, one shot. Don't let him think you're a joke.

Part 2

This guy is a joke, Treb thought to himself. First of all, he's wearing an orange jump-suit. Wow, _that's_ incredibly stealthy. And second, he's just a genin. I do an A-ranked mission and what kind of partner do I get? A genin! Genin's aren't even supposed to do A-rank missions in the first place! Well, at least he got spirit. And when Tsunade approves him, he can't be that bad. But the question is: will that be enough? I don't want to let another ninja be slaughtered by that, that…

'So, why have you taken this mission?' Naruto suddenly asked.

'Long story,' Treb responded. He stopped in the middle of the road, they where surrounded by threes on the left and right side. 'Ok, let's stop here.'

'Huh, why?'

'We must know each others fighting stile and Jutsus, so that we can cooperate better. Now, wit that said…'

Treb took a fighting position 'show me what you got!'

Naruto grinned widely 'now you're talking! Alright, I'll show you, Shadow clone jutsu!'

As those words where spoken, naruto made 20 clones of himself in an instant.

'Shadow clones. And real ones too. It looks like I shall actually have some trouble.'

All the shadow clones ran at high speed in Treb's direction. Instead of responding to the attack, he raised his hand and let water well up from the ground. When the shadow clones reached him, he quickly kicked some water up and made a icy blade out of it. One the moment that they would collide, , he ran right through the group of clones, with the sound of his blade swooping. 5 feet away from the group, al the shadow clones disappeared, but with no trace of the original one. Where is he? When he realized the location of his foe, he quickly looked up to the sky. There, Naruto was already throwing a few shurikens at him. He easily blocked al of them with his blade. 'Not bad Naruto, but now it's my turn to go offensive.'

Treb raised his hand and let water flow up from the ground. When there was a small pool of water underneath him, he let the water rise up. As the water levitated in front of him, he let the water become razor sharp ice needles. 'Crystal ice needles Jutsu'. The needles where launched at Naruto with dazzling speed. 'Shimata…' he said with a slight fear. He quickly jumpt away. The needles passed him but by a small margin, and went right through the three behind Naruto. And the one after that, and after that,…

'Are you trying to kill me?!' Naruto shouted.

'Hmmm, I haven't really decided yet…' he grinned.

'Great, a guy with humor.'

Naruto made another shadow clone, and let him rotate a small chakra ball in his hand. Eventually the chakra ball was about the size of Naruto's head. So this is the famous Rasengan, Treb thought to himself.

Naruto then ran in the direction of Treb, attempting to hit him with the Rasengan full force. Treb made in respond a giant ice shield in front of him. It was about 30 cm thick. Naruto stormed right at the icy wall, hitting it with the full power of his Rasengan. The ice wall was shattered into a thousand pieces of rock. Treb smiled, as he let the icy rocks fall on Naruto. Naruto dogged all of them, just barely. After he dogged all the ice rocks, he looked back up to Treb, only to find that he had thrown his ice sword at him. Naruto tried to dodge it, but was too late. The sword got stuck in his clothing and pinned him to a three. Treb made his approach to Naruto and pulled the blade out of the three. As Naruto fell to the ground, he said: 'Pretty high speed and strength, nice jutsu's, but a lack of strategies. I give you an 7 out of 10'

'Wow, you really now your stuff. I will enjoy working with you!' Naruto said.

'You will be an excellent help, now let's continue our search.'

'There is no need for that.' A figure said from the shadows of the forest.

'Who is there? Show yourself!' Treb said to the shadow.

'My, my. Have you already forgotten me, my old friend? I am the one you have been searching for. The so called 'thief,'' Said the figure as he emerged from the shadows. Naruto and Treb looked at him, he was tall and had dark long hair. His eyes showed sign of the byakugan. The blade he spoke of was in his hand. It was a beautiful blade, decorated with golden runes.

'Sorry, how rude of me to not tell my name to your friend. My name is Hituri, it's a pleasure.

But I'm afraid that I have to take care off you and your little friend. I grow tired of your pathetic attempts to stop me. It is time for your demise.'

For a moment they just standed there. Looking at their foe, waiting for whom to make the first move. Eventually Naruto made the first move. He made about a dozen of shadow clones. Treb, in response, used his water jutsu to give them all an icy sword. The clones rushed Hituri, trying to beat him with the sheer power of numbers. But Hituri just blocked al the swords and stabbed down all the clones.

'If that's all you got then I'm more than disappointed.'

He's strong, Naruto thought. He hasn't even begun fighting seriously and already I'm having trouble.

He looked at Treb, but he was already busy performing an jutsu. It was his Crystal Ice Needle jutsu, only now there where a lot more. 'Crystal ice needle barrage.'

The Ice needles where launched toward Hituri. There was no way he could dodge all of them. When the needles where about to pierce him, he just rotated, making a chakra barrier around him. 'Palm rotation!' All the ice needles where crushed at the moment they made contact with the barrier.

The barrier soon faded, leaving Hituri untouched. 'Are you finished? Good, then it's my turn.'

He moved at unnatural speed in Treb direction, attacking him with his sword. Treb dodged most of the attacks, but one scratch was inflicted upon him by the blade. Treb jumped back, to notice the small wound that was on his shoulder. Hituri smiled. 'you do now what this means, right?'

Treb looked with a horrid face to the wound, then quickly screamed to Naruto: 'Naruto! Kill me! He can control my blood with the special powers of the blade! Thus my body!'

'But I-I can't… kill you.' Naruto said with a shocked voice.

'Just do it! Before this guy decides that I kill you!'

'An excellent proposal,' Hituri laughed.

Against his will, Treb runs at Naruto and stared punching him. Naruto was hit blow after blow, unable to do anything. 'Please… Naruto, finish me.' Treb hit Naruto with a powerful punch, letting him fly back for several meters. Naruto made a shadow clone when he was down and let the shadow clone make a Rasengan in his hand. Treb was already running towards him with an ice blade in his hand. Naruto was paralyzed, unable to use his Rasengan.

'Just do it!' Treb screamed when he was almost in front of him.

'Rasengan!'

Naruto's Rasengan hits Treb fully in the chest. Treb was sent hurling, was stopped by a three and lay there, not moving.

Hituri grinned widely. 'bravo, not only did you beat him, but you also managed to keep him alive. However, now that your alone, how are you going to stop me? You are way weaker then Treb, and I have swatted him like a fly countless times.' His grin became even wider 'If you beg me, I will end you and his pathetic life painlessly. A decent offer, don't you agree?'

'Shut up…' Naruto responded.

Naruto slowly get back up. 'For all the people you have murder, for all the suffering you have caused. I will beat you!'

For a second, Hituri was surprised, but then his grin came back. 'So, you have chosen dead? Just for those weaklings I have slaughtered and that pathetic emotion you call 'justice.' For crying out loud… how pitiful…'

Naruto exploded into a rage, he recklessly ran into Hituri's direction. Hituri threw his sword away and waited for Naruto to come to him. Naruto wildly threw his strongest punches at him. But Hiruti dodged them all easily. Eventually he grabbed Naruto's fist and hit him fully in the face with his foot. Naruto was sent flying and came down hard on the ground. But he simply came back up, slowly, but he came back up. In a response to this, Hituri ran at him an punched him repeatedly. The punches went over into palms. Not the 64 palm techniek again.

He then kicked him again sending him flying again. He landed down next to Treb, noticing that Treb was counsius again. 'You… Must… Stop… Him…' he said. Naruto looked back up to his foe. And let a shadow clone make another Rasengan in his hand. But when the Rasengan was finished, he fell down the ground out off tiredness.

Hituri was slowly making his approach. He already picked his blade back up on his way towards them. Treb looked up to him, he immediately noticed it. 'What a shame. This boy has what you lack and now you finally understand what it takes to beat me, you will die.' He stopped in front of Treb and raised his blade under his chin. 'Any last words?'

'Yeah.'

It was at that moment that Hituri noticed that Naruto's Rasengan didn't vanish when he fell down, but was now in Treb's hand.

'Screw you.'

Treb jumped up very fast, and hit the Rasengan fully in Hituri's face. Hituri screamed as his face was pulverized, then he was blown away with brutal force.

As Hituri's remains fell too the ground, so did Treb.

'It's finally over,' he whispered.

He slowly lost his consciousness.

Treb waked up from a deep slumber. Still drowsy, he tried to get up. But he had too much pain in his chest to get up. He inspected where he was.

Apparently, he was in a hospital. Naruto was grinning widely, He was sitting on a chair right next to him. 'So, you finally waked up?'

'How long was I out?' Treb asked.

'About 3 days, I think I hit you a little bit too hard with the Rasengan. Luckily Tsunade fixed you up, or else you would be in a coma.'

Another person entered the room, it was Tsunade. 'You are healing very well, but you should avoid any hard work for now. Oh yes, I've put the sword you where looking for in that corner.' Tsunade pointed at the sword in the corner. 'with that said, I'm back to work.'

'Oh yes, that reminds me,' Treb said. 'Naruto, could you please check your mail? Your payment for completing the mission should be in it by now.'

'Huh? What about your payment?' Naruto asked with a frown.

'Well, it's pretty hard to get a reward if you asked for the mission yourself.'

'What? So you where the client all along?'

'Yes, I've asked Tsunade to give me someone strong to aid me in the quest to stop Hituri, the monster that had destroyed my life.'

'Destroyed your life? Care to share?'

'Sure, about 5 years ago, I was part of the hyugaa clan. I was one off the most respected fighters from the main branch. Life was good, until one day, an evil force developed within my soul. Don't ask me how that happened, it just did.

I quickly developed a jutsu to get this evil out of me. That's how Hituri came to be. Too bad I was too weak to stop him. He killed his way trough the hyugaa clan's houses, and stole that sword you know so well. After he escaped, I was banned from the village, until I would find the sword back and kill my evil side. And that's pretty much it.'

'So, you're going to return to your clan?'

Treb laughed loud. 'Hell no! After those bastards send me away? I wouldn't even return if they begged me, although that would be nice. As for the sword, I'll be keeping that.'

The twosome stood there and talked for a while, the Naruto leaved Treb to rest.

As Naruto left the room, Treb thanked Naruto silently. Thank you, for showing me what true power is. I always toughed that being strong revolved around hard training and learning. But you have shown me true power. And that is fighting to protect someone. For that, I am in debt to you, he silently toughed.


	2. Chapter 2: lords of armagedon

**Hi, sorry i didn't gave a proper discrition in the first chapter (I forgot).  
Plot: This one is about Ino, Treb an Naruto. They are sent on a mission to delivere a scroll to a nearby village. Little do they known that there isn't much left of it.  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is a fanbased parody and nothing more.**

Chapter 2: Lords of Armageddon

3 days later…

Treb was just out of the hospital, when Naruto appeared. 'Hi, what are you doing?'

'I was actually thinking about visiting the Hyuga clan. I wonder if they still remember me.'

'I know what you mean. But for now, that has to wait. We got another mission from Tsunade.'

Treb sighted. 'What is it?'

'We have to deliver this scroll to the village called Mangen, a little bit south of here. Tsunade doesn't expect any trouble, but the scroll is of extreme importance. Oh yes, Ino will by joining us in this mission.'

It was only now that Treb noticed a girl sitting on the bench somewhat farther from them. She walked over to their direction. 'Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Ino, but I'm sure you know about me,' she said with a grin.

'Actually, I don't. My name is Treb. It's a pleasure.'

'Well, are you guys done talking?' Naruto said. 'We are supposed to go on a mission, so let's go!'

Treb looked how Naruto whent ahead full of energy. 'Hey Ino, is he always this… jumpy?'

'Always.'

They made their journey toward the village, talking about various thinks.

Meanwhile, 100 miles away…

We were observing the village from a hill. The fools. They had no idea that they would be send to oblivion in mere minutes.

'What can you see?' I asked to my partner.

'3000 genins, 1600 chuunins and 300 jounins.'

'Anything that's a threat to us?'

'Even with their combined strenght, they would barely match one of us.'

'What about non-combatens?'

'About 500.'

'Hmmm, let's try to keep those alive. We need to keep our reputation good, don't we iyami?'

'Good point, Ryoku.'

I gave one last look at the village in its current state. 'We waited enough, let's do what we get paid for.'

I let the dark energy flow through my veins. Its corrupting power gave me strength, while my friend was preparing one of his most powerful jutsu's.

I laughed. From ashes to ash, from dust to dust.

30 minutes later.

'The village is just over this hill,' Treb said.

'Was about time, it was much further then Tsunade said,' Naruto complained.

The threesome climbed over the top of the hill. Where there eyes saw the most horrid thing.

'It… can't be…' Naruto said shocked.

'What kind of monster would do this?' Ino said traumatized.

Before them laid the village, only now it was a mere ruble.

'Let's go help them!' Naruto shouted.

They ran down the hill, entering what's left of the village main gate. From close, the village was even more ravaged then they saw on the hill. Many ninja's where lying on the street, death. Bert inspected the body's, 'They attacked swift. They where with many, but they weren't human.'

What do you mean?' Ino asked.

'Well, these bodies's where killed in various ways. Some of them where killed by extreme heat, others by weapons, and another group by wounds that indicate animal claws.' He further inspected the bodies. 'The blood is still fresh, they where killed mere minutes ago.' Narutopunched with his fist to the ground. 'Those basterds! They killed thousands of innocent people!' He looked up to Treb, with a fierce look in his eyes. 'Can you track them down?'

'Yes, but its unwise to go after them.'

'What do you mean unwise?!' Naruto shouted.

'Naruto, come to your senses. They slaughtered this entire village in mere minutes, how the hell are we supposed to stand a chance?'  
'We can't just let them get away with it! Would you let these devils go with this unpunished?'

Treb toughed about that for a while. 'Okay, I get your point. Let's go after them.'

He looked at Ino. 'You search for survivors while we go after them. If you find any, threat their wounds. If not, come after us. I'll let some hints of our direction behind. Got it?'

'Yes.'

'Very well. Naruto, lets go.'

'Right!'

The twosome ran into the woods, after their enemies.

Meanwhile, in the dept of the forest…

_How disappointing_, Ryoku thought to himself. _Those villagers where no match for us. I would expect that they would at least scratch us._

'We have company,' iyami said.

'Is it one of the survivors?' Ryoku asked.

'No, it are two ninja's, and they are both quite powerful.'

'Will they be a problem?'

'Hmmm, one of them has a demon inside of him. I think it's the nine tailed demon fox.' he looked worried.

'That could be a problem. But can he control it properly? '

iyami toughed about that question for a while, looking in the direction where the two ninja where coming from. 'No, I don't think he can control it.'

'Then lets hope, for their sake, that they don't catch up to us. Enough blood has been spilled.'

The two walked further for a while. But after only a short while, Iyami stopped. He sighted, 'Three, two, one…'

'Hold it!' was screamed from the darkness of the forest.

'They are here,' Iyami said. The two turned around to face their opponents.

Treb and Naruto had finally found the culprits. Although, under the way, Treb noticed something. The trail of the beasts and humans disappeared slowly. As if they vanished into thin air. Eventually, when they found their enemies, there where only two left. The two where wearing cloaks with a mask on their face. The masks differ greatly from one and other. One had a mask with dark patterns on it, the other with flames. Treb quickly looked at the terrain. They where in an open space in the forest. 'Are you the ones responsible for the murder of those villagers?!' Naruto shouted.

'That honor befalls to us, yes,' one of them said.

'But it's in your best interest to let us go. We don't want to kill more people.'

'Sorry, pal. But we aren't going to let you walk away with this!'

While Naruto said that, Treb noticed that both hands of the guy with the dark mask where bleeding. The wounds where on his fingertips. _So that's how they did it…_

'hmpf, do you truly think your demon can give you enough strength to stop us, Naruto Uzimaki? Without that demon, you would be long dead, rotting beneath the earth with the Kage who gave it to you.'

'How did you know that?' Naruto said shocked.

'Meh, I have my ways. Now if you excuse us.'

They turned their back on them and prepared to leave. In response to this, Naruto threw a few shurikens towards them. But before they were able to hit them, they disappeared in thin air.

'It seems you have no intentions of letting us leave.' They slowly turned around. The one with the dark mask did a step forward. 'For the last time: leave, if you value your lives.' But it was too late. Naruto had already made a Rasengan and was storming in their direction. 'So be it,' said the one with the dark mask.

Naruto was just about to reach them, when a giant wall of fire appeared before him. Naruto stopped right in front of it, powerless to pass the immense wall. Treb responded to this techniekby drawing water out of the ground and creating a small tidal wave. The wave dimmed the wall of fire, only to reveal a dozen of horrible creatures behind the wall. _How the hell did they summon that many in just a split second?_Treb didn't had much time to think about that question, as the army of monsters immediately ran toward Naruto. 'Shimata…' Naruto said. Before the monsters reached Naruto, Treb was in front of them. He cut half of them down with his blade, then looked at Naruto. His Byatugan was active. 'What are you doing? Give me a hand here!'

They both attack the remaining group of monsters. After a short while they killed all of them. They disappeared in a puff of smoke. The one with the dark mask stood in front of them. _Where is his partner? _Treb asked himself. Their enemy pointed above them. Treb looked up, only to find that the one with the flame mask has made a giant ball of fire and was about to drop it on them. 'Get behind me!' Treb shouted to Naruto. Narutojumped behind Treb, while he made a massive ice wall. At the moment the fire ball connected with the ice wall, it exploded with enormous power. The ice shield broke like a twig, sending Naruto and Treb flying backward for several meters. When they get back up, they noticed the place where their attacks collided a big crater stood. In the far distance, they heard something falling. 'Not bad at all, Leaf Villagers. Most people don't live to tell about my Supernova. If you live long enough, I can show you a _really _powerful techniek.'

The one with the fire mask landed back on the ground.

The other one laughed. 'Nicely done Iyami, but now it's my turn.' He took a few steps in Treb and Naruto's direction. 'You can still retreat.'

'Never,' Naruto responded.

'Very well.' In a split second, 4 portals opened left and right from naruto. Out of these dark portals came chains with something that looked like human hands on the ends. The hands grabbed Naruto by the arms and legs and then began to stretch them. 'Still don't feel like giving up?' The dark masked guy said. 'Nope' Naruto responded. At that moment, the chains where pulling the arms and legs of Naruto more and more. Naruto screamed of the immense pain this is causing to his arms and legs. Treb, who was watching this happen, noticed with his Byatugan that a strange form of chakra was flowing through the one with the dark mask. His whole being seemed made out of an unknown source of chakra. It even flowed through his blood.

When Naruto started screaming some more, he quickly snapped out of his thoughts. He quickly ran towards Naruto to free him. But before he reached him, the one that was called Iyami jumped in front of him. They made eye contact, and Treb found himself unable to move, hypnotized by the red eyes of his opponent. He was starting to feel warm, then even warmer, then he feltlike his soul was on fire. And even though all this, he was unable too look away from his eyes. He heard someone screaming out of pain. To his own suprise, it was himself. Naruto saw how Treb was tortured'Have you two got no hearth?!' he shouted.

'Hearth?' The one with the dark mask said. He loosened his grip from Naruto by a small margin. 'I once had a hearth. I gave it to someone very prec-, no, the _only_ one very precious to me. But then she passed away. And together with her, my hearth died.' He resumed Naruto's torture.

'Tell me, Naruto Uzimaki. How would you feel if everyone precious to you would be destroyed? How would you feel when the only thing precious to you would be utterly crushed?' He tightened his grip around Naruto's limbs even more. A little more and they would be ripped off.

'That's enough, Ryoku,' Iyami said.

But Ryoku didn't respond to that. 'Maybe I should visit your village and make you understand. How it feels, to lose absolutely everything. To see all your friends being slaughtered like pigs, and even denying the satisfaction of reuniting yourself with them in death. To dwell this rotten earth for all eternity.'

Suddenly, Iyami jumped away and Treb was finally released from the jutsu. On the place where Iyami was, a few shurikens landed. 'Sorry I'm late,' a familiar voice said. Ino jumped down from a three and landed right next to Treb. 'After I found no survivors, I came to help you guys. Where's Naruto anyway?'

They both looked in the direction of where Naruto was put into chains, but apparently he freed himself some way. He was lying on the ground, badly hurt by the jutsu. Iyami landed next to the Ryoku. 'What's wrong?' He asked. But Ryoku didn't responded. He was freezed in place, staring at Ino. _This is my chance_, Treb toughed to himself. He looked at Naruto and he nodded back. Naruto knew what he was going to do.

Treb threw a dozen shurikens in Ryoku's direction. Naruto jumped up very quickly and did the same. As Treb toughed, Ryoku didn't responded. 'Shimata,' Iyami said. He jumped in front of Ryoku and grabbed al the shurikens out of the air. Then threw them back in the direction of Ino. Immediatelyafter he did that, he made a hand seal while saying: 'Shuriken clone jutsu'.

The shurikens where multiplied by a huge amount. Ino stood still, as there was no way to dodge an entire wall of shurikens. Treb noticed this and ran into Ino's direction to save her. 'Damn, not fast enough,' he said frustrated.

At the moment the shurikens would rend her flesh, Ino turned away and waited for her end. She heard the sound of shurikens rending flesh, but did not feel any pain. She turned back to see what's happening. To her surprise, Ryoku stood in front of her. His back bleeding by the shurikens that where stuck in his body.

His mask fell off by the shurikens that damaged the straps. Ino saw his face. To her surprise, the ninja was about her age, mayby a year older. He had black hair with a slight green tint. His hair was as long as his neck and his eyes where a mixed color of brown and green. But it was his face that was the most extraordinary.

His face expressed a strange combination of pain, amazement and disbelief. He jumped back next to Iyami, then fell to his knees out of pure pain. Iyami looked up from his partner to Treb's group. 'Hmpf.'

He started making a large serie of hand seals, while saying some words that Treb neither Naruto knew the meaning of. 'Fu-rin-kah-za…' But before he could complete the jutsu, Ryoku grabbed one of his arms to make him stop. Iyami looked at him. 'Ryoku, we must kill them. They have seen your face.'

'You… will d-do no shuts… thing,' Ryoku said with the greatest effort.

'And why not?'

'Because I say… so'

Iyami started doubting.

'Iyami… please. I ask you this not as a p-partner, but as a… friend. Do this… for me… please…'

A minuet passed. Then Iyami had finally made his decision. 'Very well,' he said.

He then took Ryoku's arm and putted it over his shoulder. He looked back at Treb's group. 'We shall meet again. In better circumstances, may I hope.'

Naruto ran at their direction to finish Ryoku off. But before he reached them, they already disappeared, leaving only a medallion, stained with Ryoku's blood. Treb stepped towards the medallion, picking it up. The perfectly round, golden medallion, could be opened. Ino stood next to him. 'Well, aren't you going to open it?' She asked.

Treb did this, only to find the shock of his life. Inside the medallion was a picture of Ino and Ryoku, holding each other, smiling. 'How,… how is this possible?' Ino asked herself. 'You tell me,' Treb threesome made their journey back to their village.

Meanwhile…

'Why did you stop me, Ryoku, why?' Iyami asked angry.

'Because it was her,' Ryoku said indifferently.

Iyami was busy removing the shurikens from Ryoku's back. 'Oh please, how can you know for sure?'

'Because I just know it. Everything about her is the same as before. Her face, her eyes, even her perfume.'

Iyami was structuring Ryoku's wounds. 'But how, how is it possible she still lives?'

'I don't know and I don't care. What matters is that she still is alive and well.'

Iyami took some sake and poured it over Ryoku structured wounds. He didn't even blink.

Ryoku then suddenly grabbed his chest, then lowered his hand. _It's gone..._

'What are we going to do from here then?' Iyami asked.

'We shall have to pay them a visit,' Ryoku said with a smile.


	3. Chapter 3: the fox hunts the cat

**Kay, this one is about Naruto getting robbed. Not much else to say. Btw, have you noticed that big, shiny, review button? You should press it and see what it does...**

Chapter 3: The fox hunts the cat

_I'm __really, really bored_, Naruto thought to himself.

It's been like, what, 5 days since mine last exiting mission. Now its back again to D-missions. He walked through the crowded marked district of the village. Then he fell over by a person who pushed him. 'Oops, excuse me!' A female voice said. 'Couldn't you look…' But Naruto inmeadedly swallowed those words back in, as he noticed that the one who pushed him over was a very attractive woman. 'I'm sorry if I hurt you,' she said with a voice as sweet as honey. 'No, no, it's absolutely no problem. I was totally in the way.' Narutosaid quickly. He further inspected her face, or rather, her body. She was about 22 years old, 1m 70 tall, had blond, long hair and a perfectly formed body. 'Oh, here, you dropped you wallet.' She gave Naruto's wallet back. 'Thanks,' he said with an exaggerated grin. 'Well, I have to go now. See you later, cutie!' She then turned her back to Naruto and walked away. Naruto kept looking at her until he didn't see her. _She called me cutie_.

He then walked back towards his house, only to find out after five minuets of walking that the necklace that Tsunade gave him was missing. _That woman…_

'Shimata!' He shouted.

* * *

'You have to help me!' Naruto shouted against Treb.

Treb was lying on a bench, listening with only half an ear. 'And why was this necklace so important to you again?'

'Because Tsunade gave that necklace to me, and if she find's out, she'll kill me!'

'Fair enough,' Treb said while he got up.

'So, where do we start?'

'You got a clean look on her, right? Lets ask people around where they seen someone like that,' Treb suggested.

'Good idea, lets start around the market district.'

They where to just about to start their search, when a person bumped into Treb. 'Sorry,' the person hastily said. 'It's ok,' Treb responded. Treb then walked towards the person who bumped into him. He grabbed the persons shoulder and turned him around to him. 'I now will be taking my wallet back, thank you.'

'T-That's her! She the one that stole my necklace!' Naruto said.

The woman looked around for a way to escape. 'Now look, I'm sure we can talk this over.'

She then suddenly attacked Treb with her bare hand. Treb jumped backwards to barely dodge the sudden attack. He heard a ripping sound when the nails of the woman tore through his clothes. Witch was quite a spectacular performance, since it also went right through his headband he had in his pocket.

The woman then turned around and ran away, at blazing speed.

'Get her!' Naruto said while running after the woman.

They chased her for a while, until they noticed that she was running straight towards the village defense wall.

'Dead end,' Treb said with a smile.

But she didn't slowed down with the immense wall coming closer. In fact, she went over it with a huge jump. Naruto stopped in front of the wall and could only look in aw at this acrobatic jump. Treb looked at Naruto. 'How much do you weight?' He asked.

'Hu? About 120 pounds. Why do you ask?'

'Light enough!' he said while grabbing Naruto by the shoulders.

'Hey! What are you…' but before Naruto could finish his sentence, he was threw over the wall with enormous strength.

While Naruto was flying and screaming through the air, Treb ran at the wall and concentrated his chakra to his feet to run up the wall. Halfway up as he heard the sound of something hitting the ground on the other side.

* * *

Tsuai landed on the other side of the wall. _That should buy me some time_, she toughed.

'Now let's see have a look at that nice pendant,' she said to herself. She took the pendant out of her pocket and examined it.

'This should fetch a handsome of money.'

She looked at her surrounding. 'No need for this disguise anymore.'

She quickly made a hand seal to undo the transformation jutsu.

Tsuai was just about to leave, when she heard a screaming sound from the air. She quickly turned to see what the source of the noise was.

Naruto crashed into a tree, taking several bruises upon landing. _Why does this always happen to me…_

'Wow, do all ninja's land that way?' He looked into the direction of the voice. To his surprise, there was a black haired woman with cat ears and a tail standing in an open space.

'Hey umm, catwoman. Did you see a blond woman of 22 years old pass by here?' He asked confused.

'What, you mean this woman?' she made a hand seal to transform into the blond woman.

She then quickly transformed back to her real form.

'Aren't you ninja's supposed to see trough deception? The academy really went down big time if they are already making guys like you ninja's.' She took Naruto's pendant out of her pocket.

'And to think that ninja's are so easy to steal from. I should start stealing from ninja's instead of merchants and shopkeepers!'

'Hey, that pendants mine! Give it back!' Naruto said while he climbed down the three.

She grinned widely. 'Why should I? Give me a good reason and I might consider it.'

'It got's, umm, emotional values, yeah! That's a good reason right?!'

Her grin became even wider. 'Emotional values? Now I definitely want to keep it!'

She then tried the pendent on. 'What do you think? Fits pretty well with my figure, hu?'

Naruto stormed right at her. 'Gimmy back my pendant!'

The mysterious woman easily dodged his attacks and jumped on a nearby three.

'Easy, boy. If you don't play nice, you might never get it back.'

She looked down on Naruto's angry face. 'Oh, don't say you don't enjoy this little game. Tell ya what? Just because I'm in a good mood, I'll give you a fair chance. If you can but only touch me in the next half hour, I'll give you the pendant back. Sounds fair enough, hmmm?'

Naruto jumped straight at her, with the intention of punching her. 'When I get you, I'll give you the biggest beating of your life!'

Half an hour of cat and mousgames later…

'Just give me the pendant back would ya?!' Naruto said irritated.

She giggled. 'Aw, done already? Although you stamina is great, it means nothing if you can't reach me.'

Her senses picked up movement from behind her. But when she looked behind her, it was already too late. Treb jumped at her and immediately grabbed her into a hand grip.

'Hey, no fair!' she yelled.

Naruto walked towards them. 'About time you showed up.'

'Hey, I had to make sure she didn't suspected anything.'

The woman tried to free herself from Treb's grip, no good.

_It seems I have to use THAT techniek,_ She toughed.

Naruto took his pendant from her neck. 'I'll be taking that back.'

Treb started feeling into her pockets, untill he found his wallet. 'And I will be taking my wallet back.'

Although she had nowhere to run, she smiled. _It's showtime._

'Hey, Treb, was it?'

'Yes?' He responded.

'You know, that was a pretty good trick you pulled on me. You must be a really good ninja sneaking up on me like that. And you must work out a lot. I can feel that in the big strong arms you're holding me with.'

'Flattery won't get you anywhere.'

'touche, but, seriously though. That strong grip, the way you come to help out your friend here, I like that in a man. It makes me so, so…'

She turned a little more into Treb direction. She then came closer and closer to him in a attempt to reach his lips.

'…excited.'

'What the…?' Treb immediately let go of his hand grip so he could back away from her.

Her sensual pushed to getter lips quickly chanced into a big smile. 'Gotcha.'

She quickly jumped away from Treb and Naruto. Then looked back at them. 'Humpf, you should be flattered. It's not very often I have to pull of that trick.'

She looked into the woods behind her. 'Well, gotta go. See ya!'

Naruto ran after her. 'Wait!'

But it was already too late. She quickly disappeared into the forest.

'Well, at least we got our stuff back.'

Treb didn't respond to that. He just stared into the woods with an angry look.

'uuuh, Treb, are you okay?'

'She stole my wallet, again.' He said with a restrained angriness.

'You know, Naruto,' he said slowly. 'When I see her again, and she comes but a feet near me.'

'I'M GONNA KILL THAT DIRTY BI…'


	4. Chapter 4: Unexpected guests

**Yay, this is number 4. In this one, Naruto is reunited with two ninja's he toughed to have lost in chapter 2. If you find any mistakes in my grammar, then I'm sorry. English isn't my best language. Comments are encouraged and appreciated!**

Chapter 4: Unexpected guests

_Why do I always get stuck with guarding duties? _Izumo toughed to himself. He looked in front of him, not looking for anything particular. Then he saw two shady figures approach the main gate. The two cloaked ninja's where about to enter the gate. 'Halt,' Izumo said. 'What is your business here?'

'We came to see the Hokage,' one of them said.

'For what?'

'Why, to sell our services, of course,' the other said.

'What kind off services?'

'Tactical assassination, bodyguard, one-man's-army, the usual stuff.'

'Ah, so you are ninja who want to swear your allegiance to this village eh?'

He pointed to a building in the middle of the city. 'The Hokage has plenty of time for guys like you two. Head to that building. There she shall wait for you. Oh, and one word of advice.'

'Yes?' One of them said while they entering the main gate.

'Don't call her an old hag or something like that. It would probably cost you your live.'

'Thank you.'

The two passed though the gate. But when they where almost trough, Izumo put his hand on the shoulder of one of bring them to a halt.

'I'm sorry, but I can't let you pass through without some accompany,' Izumo said.

He pointed towards some guys who stood somewhat farther from the gate. 'these jounins will lead you to her.'

The one he was holding looked at his hand. 'That's fine and but…' He looked from his hand to his face. '… If you don't remove your hand from my shoulder in ten seconds, you won't be holding anything whit that hand anymore.'

'I'll better do what he asks,' the other one spoke. 'Few ever live to talk about touching Ryoku, 'The Beast.''

A grimace went over Ryoku's face as that name was pronounced.

Izumo let go of his grip as if he touched something foul. 'R-Ryoku? T-The Beast of the Village hidden in the blood?' He said trembling. 'Then you must be, Iyami 'Hellfire.''

'Yes, is it a problem that we want to swear our allegiance to this village?'

'N-Not at all. P-Please, forgive my rudeness.'

'It's all right. Just remember that next time, it might cost you a body part,' Iyami said with a smile.

As soon as the twosome disappeared out of sight, he ran over to Kotetsu, who was sleeping at the moment. 'Hey, Kotetsu, wake up!'

Kotetsu yawned loudly. 'What, is my shift done?'

'Go round up the ANBU black ops! Give them the order to accompany the jounins that are keeping an eye on the visitors of the village.'

'Wow, what got you all riled up?' He said still drowsy.

'Just now, The Beast and Hellfire entered the village. They said they wanted to swear their allegiance to the village!'

Kotetsu immediately became fully awake. 'And you let them in!? Have your gone insane!? What if they weren't speaking the truth?!'

'If they weren't planning on becoming allies,' Izumo said slowly. 'Then we would be dead.'

Kotetsu looked into the direction of the village. 'God help us.'

* * *

'Hey, Naruto. Did ya hear?' Konahamaru said with a big smile.

'Hear what?' Naruto asked.

'There is some 'secret meeting' going on in Tsunade's office! It is concerning your delivery mission a few days ago!'

'Hu? My delivery mission?' Naruto reminded himself of the fight he had with Ryokuand Iyami. 'I just gotta know all about that! Konahamaru, can you go get Treb and Ino? I'm sure they deserve to hear this too.'

'Sure thing!'

* * *

'So let me get this straight,' Tsunade said while folding here hands. 'What where you're demands?'

Iyami smiled. He looked around in Tsunade's office, ignoring the 10 anbu's that where in the room too. Ryokuwas standing next to him. 'We but merely need tree things,' Iyami said.

'Number one: access to all the medical files and the library of Konaha.

Number two: a look at your village secret scroll. Don't worry, we don't want it. We just wane look in awe at that magnificent piece of ancient documentary.'

* * *

'Hey, Naruto, can you hear anything?' Konahamaru asked him.

Naruto was leaning against the door of Tsunades office. 'I'm not sure, something about our secret scroll and some guys who want to join our village.'

'Well, let me now what you find out. If Tsunade sees me sneaking around here, I'll be in trouble.' He left Naruto.

Naruto sighted. If he'll just get in trouble, where does that leave me?

* * *

'And number tree?' Tsunade asked.

'Free weekends and holidays,' Iyami answered.

'Are you serious?' Tsunade answered slightly surprised.

Iyami walked toward the door. 'Of course I'm serious. Our free time is very important to us.'

Iyami then quickly opened the door. Naruto fell to the ground.

'Ah, Naruto! How nice of you to join us,' Iyami said.

Naruto looked up to Ryoku. He recognized him and stormed right at him in an attempt to punch him in the face. But before his fist could reach him, Ryoku's hand was put around his troath. Ryoku then looked at Tsunade. 'Where do you want him?'

'Uuh, in that corner is just fine,' she said.

Ryoku lobbed naruto in the corner.

He quickly stood back up and looked at Tsunade. 'Tsunade, what ever they say about joining the village, don't believe them!'

Tsunade nodded to the ANBU's. 'Take him away.'

'No wait,' Iyami responded. 'Let him have his say in this matter.'

Naruto looked at Iyami. His hair had a strange combination of red and yellow, kind off like the pattern of flames. His red eyes reminded him of someone, but he couldn't say who. He was wearing a red cape with a black ninja grab underneath it. Ryoku was wearing the same, minus the cape.

He walked to Naruto and looked at him. 'Why do you think we mustn't join this village?'

'Because you two slaughtered an entire village!'

'That's unimportant,' Ryoku said. 'We didn't do a single harmful action towards this village.'

'Oh yeah? Well say that against my limbs that you almost tore off!'

Ryoku looked down upon Naruto. 'May I remind you, Naruto Uzumaki, that it was your group that attacked us? Not the other way around. And all that after we gave you plenty of warnings.'

Tsunade looked back at the ANBU's. 'That's enough, take him away.'

Two ANBU's took a hold at Naruto and dragged him out of Tsunade's office, while he was doing his best to come free. 'Don't, Tsunade. They will destroy the whole village!'

The threesome looked how Naruto was dragged away until he was out of sight. Then Iyami cleared his troath. 'Now, where were we? Oh yes, you where about to hire us, right?'

'I don't know for sure, the kid has a point.' She looked directly at Ryoku and Iyami. 'How can I trust you two?'

'You have our word.'

'I don't think your word is enough for me.'

Iyami laughed. 'You got us there. But no matter, we might have something that fits your…'

Iyami was interrupted by Ino and Treb walked into the room. 'Hold it right there, I think we got something to say in this matter,' Treb said.

Iyami looked up and rolled his eyes. 'Ugh, not more delay.'

Ryoku was slightly surprised to see Ino, but quickly hid it. He then gave Iyami a scroll. 'I had enough. You take care of the rest, I'll be waiting outside.'

One of the ANBU's tried to stop him. 'Hey, you can't leav…'

But it was too late, as Ryoku disappeared into thin air.

'Well, about the trust thing.' Iyami gave an amused look toward Treb and Ino. 'I have something here that will guarantee our full cooperation.' Iyami gave the scroll to Tsunade. She took a long look at it. 'What is this?'

'It's a blood contract. It's a pact people make when they don't trust each other. Both parties sign this treaty together with their demands. As you can see, we already signed our names and wrote down the demands. We just need your name for the full treaty. Once done, you can't go back.'

'How do you mean 'can't go back?'' Ino asked.

Iyami grinned. 'I'll tell you all about it. The original founder of this techniek made a contract with a Kage. He would lend him his army to destroy his enemies, but in exchange, the Kage would have to be completely obedient to him. After the Kage defeated his enemies, he betrayed him and did whatever he pleased. This is when the blood contracts curse comes into effects. It started out small. The first day after his betrayal, one of his villagers died. The second day two, the third three and so on. On the tend day he knew this was caused by the curse, so he begged the founder of this fine techniek to forgive him. And he did…'

Iyami's grin became wider. 'On the hundred day.'

'So basically, if I betray you or vice versa, our loved ones will die?' Tsunade said.

'That depends in how far you have violated the contract. The contract has it own way of punishing betrayal.'

Iyami then sensed a chakra spike in the air. _This chakra … It must be Ryoku's. I must round this up quickly._

'Now, if you would quickly decide. I am short on time.'

Tsunade looked from the contract to Iyami, he was smiling arrogantly to her. She was doubting. Until a voice in her head started talking. _You know you need these ninja's, the village could immensely use them with the upcoming threat of Akatsuki. Do it, take them in._

The voice had a hypnotising sound to it. And thanks to it, she quickly made a decision.

Tsunade cut open her hand with a kunai, and writhed down her name in blood. 'I accept.'

Iyami's arrogant look disappeared as snow in front of the sun. He knelt down in front of Tsunade and bowed his head down out of respect. 'Then I am now your loyal servant. I await your command.'

'Uuumh, just get to know everyone in the village for today,' she said, confused by Iyami's humble appearance.

Iyami stood back up and walked toward the door. 'Then I will take my leave.'

'Wait, you will need these.' Tsunade threw two headbands at Iyami. He caught them and putted one immediately on his forehead. 'I'll wear it with pride.'

He gave one last arrogant look at Treb and Ino while he left.

Once outside, Iyami quickly followed the energy spike, until he found Ryoku. He was lying in a grass field, looking at the clouds. 'What was that chakra spike all about, Ryoku?'

He looked up to Iyami. 'Oh, nothing special. I just… was reminded of something.'

Iyami's worried look disappeared. 'That makes sense, forget I ever asked that.'

'How was our meeting?'

'Nothing a little mind chances couldn't handle.'

'I'm sure she would have taken our offer even if you didn't use your special powers.'

Iyami raised his shoulders. 'That wasn't a risk I was willing to take. Anyway, our first 'assignment' is to know everyone in the village.'

'Well that will be a pain in the ass. Once we say our name, they probably run away in horror, or try to kill us.'

'Yeah, same old song as in any other village, isn't it?'

'Let's start at the nearby shops. There is a ramen shop around here somewhere where we can start meeting people.'

Iyami sighted. 'Well, better make the best of it. Let's just try not to hurt them too much when they try to kill us, okay? Oh yeah, catch.'

Iyami threw the headband he got from Tsunade toward Ryoku. But before it was even barely thrown out of Iyami's hand, it disappeared and reappeared back in Ryoku's hand. He tied it to his forehead. 'Well, Let's get going.'

They walked for a bit, until Ryoku saw someone.

'Who's that over there?'

They both looked at a person that was wearing something that looked as a green spandex suit. They approached him in an attempt to talk to him. 'Hello, we are…'

'I know who you two are!' The green man shouted. 'My name is Rock Lee, and I shall defend this village from your evil intends!' He took a defensive stand. 'Now, draw your weapon!'

'No thank you. I'd rather not hurt you,' Ryoku said.

'Yeah, lets just ignore him. I can tell he isn't even a worthy distraction.' Iyami gave him a piercing look with his eyes. 'No Genjutsu and ninjutsu whatsoever? I can only imagine how bad your Sensei is… '

Lee stormed right at him. 'Say what you will about me, but don't you dare to insult Gai sensei!'

Lee was just about to hit Iyami's face, but he just vanished into thin air. 'That takes care of that,' Ryoku said.

'Where did you send him?'

'About 70 kilometers east of here. He can work out his anger by walking back. That is if he knows the way back.'

Then next moment, a dog came running towards Ryoku. It looked very happy to see him with it's tail waggling. Ryoku petted the dog. 'That's quite unusual for Akumaru,' a voice left of them said. 'You must be a really good person if he likes you that much.'

'Well, even dogs make mistakes,' Ryoku said.

Ryoku greeted him and walked away.

The twosome quickly found the Ramen shop. It was there they found Naruto.

'Oh wonderful, this guy wanted to kill me even before I said anything.' Ryoku said.

'Try apologizing to him, it's probably for the best.'

'Apologize?! He was the one who attacked us, why should I?!'

'Massacre of an entire village, nearly ripping his limbs of, saying that you would maybe kill his entire village,… Shall I go on?'

'Fine, I get your point. But I'm not promising anything.'

Iyami smiled. 'Good luck, you'll need it.'

Ryoku walked toward Naruto and took the seat next to him. If he noticed Ryoku, he wasn't paying any attention to him.

'Hey, Naruto. I am sorry about what I did. And I want to call for a cease fire between us two. You okay with that?'

Naruto was still ignoring him. Ryoku rolled with his eyes. _The immaturity._

'Okay, I'm sorry for almost ripping your limbs off. But you got to admit, you weren't…'

'I don't need your apologies.' Naruto said.

He turned himself toward Ryoku so he could look directly at him. 'What you did to that village is… unforgivable. And I will never forgive a beast like you.'

Iyami heard what Naruto said, and felt that Ryoku's chakra level was starting to get several times bigger then his usual. Iyami prepared himself for a massive bloodbath.

'You know, Naruto, your absolutely right. If you want to call me a beast, fine. I get that allot. But don't forget, Naruto, you yourself was once called a beast as well.' Ryoku stood up and continued his lecture. 'And you still are. You know, we are each other opposites. You are discriminated for what you are on the inside, I am for what I am on the outside.' He made a vengeful smile. 'But we both know that it's what in the inside that counts. Doesn't it, Naruto?' Naruto was speechless, he just stared at him. Ryoku turned his back on him. 'Now if you excuse me, there are some other people beside you who want to kill me.'

He then walked back to Iyami. He was relieved to see Ryoku restrain himself from smearing Naruto's blood all over the village, not that he would grief for his dead. After some walking, Iyami started talking again. 'I think that went actually quite well, don't you?'

'Go to hell,' Ryoku answered.


	5. Chapter 5: a sick joke

**Jo, this is number 5. In this one, Ryoku and Iyami get themselves a little 'joke' on their hands. Sorry, can't say anything more, or I'll spoil the surprise. There is one thing I can say though, it's hilarious ^^. **

**Enjoy.**

'You wanted to see us?' Iyami asked.

Ryoku and Iyami where standing in Tsunade's office. From what they heard, it had something to do with their rank. 'Yes, I have seen a little problem concerning you ranks.'

'That being?'

'You both never got passed genin before you two became S-Ranked ninja's. That meaning, your still genin's.'

'So?'

A smile came over Tsunades face. Oh, how pissed off they would be!

'This means I can't hand you out missions of B and higher before you've done the chuunin exams.'

A short silence came.

'Is this a joke? Because if it is, it's a real bad one,' Ryoku said.

'Sadly, no. But don't worry, the next chuunin exams are within a week.'

'Then we'll be there.' They were just about to leave.

'Wait just a moment there,' Tsunade said. 'For the chuunin exams, you must be in a team of tree.' She grinned widely. 'And the only genin in the village at the moment, is Naruto.'

Iyami looked at Ryoku with a unhappy face. 'We're screwed, aren't we?'

'Congrats, you just won the understatement of the year award.'

* * *

'So, you want me for the chuunin exams?' Naruto said.

'Yes, you're in?' Ryoku asked.

Iyami remembered the words a great toad once told him. 'Take a hike.'

'Oh, c'mon Naruto. With us, your guaranteed to advance to the finals. And becoming a Chuunin is a big step towards becoming the next Hokage.'

'How did you…?'

Iyami raised his finger to silence Naruto and wagged it. 'Tss, tss. A magician never reveals his tricks. So are you in or out?'

Naruto toughed for about it. Little did he knew that Iyami was altering his mind. 'Okay then.'

They did missions until the exams commenced.

* * *

'…Everyone got that?' Naruto, Ryoku and Iyami had just passed the written exam, and where now ready to enter the forest of dead. 'Okay, go!'

Iyami casually walked into the forest. 'Forest of dead? More like forest of boredom. This will be a snap.'

Naruto saw how Iyami and Ryoku putted their mask on from before. 'Why do you need those?'

'With these masks, people will instantly know who we are and stay the hell away from us.'

Ryoku saw a group of ninja's just somewhat farther. 'Watch and learn,' he said with a smile.

Iyami and Ryoku disappeared.

* * *

'So the only thing we need to do is find a scroll, eh?' One of the ninja's said.

'It looks that way.'

Right in front of them, an enormous explosion erupted. They were blasted away. Out of the flames of the explosion, a demonic laughter was heard. It where Iyami and Ryoku. 'Looks like we already got somebody to take the scroll from,' one of the ninja's said.

Iyami laughed while he let flames circle around them. 'Foolish mortals, do you not know our names? We are Iyami Hellfire and Ryoku the Beast! Hand over the scroll, if you value your lives!'

'Never heard of them,' one of the ninja's said. 'Right gu…?' He came to the conclusion that his friends had disappeared.

When he returned his sight back to Iyami and Ryoku, he saw how they were held against the ground by ungodly creatures. Ryoku slowly walked towards him. 'The scroll.'

The terrified ninja did a few steps back, only to push himself against something. He looked behind him and saw Iyami standing in front of him, with a big, evil grin. 'Give us the scroll, or we'll take it from your dead body.'

'Do what he says!' One of his friends said. 'I've heard story about these two. They say that they destroyed 8 villages all by themselves!'

He quickly gave them the scroll. 'Thank you.'

Ryoku ordered his beasts to let them go and they ran away, like the devil himself was after them.

Iyami threw the scroll at Naruto. 'And that's how you do it.'

'Honestly, were wasting our time here,' Ryoku said while Naruto caught the scroll.

'That was all show then?' Naruto asked.

'It was, but we can make it real, if you don't watch out.' Iyami looked at Ryoku. 'Get us out of here, before these pathetic ninja's infect us.'

But Ryoku didn't respond. He seemed to just stare in the distance, thinking. Then a devilish grin came over his face.

'Just a second, I have an idea.' Ryoku made handseal, then bit his finger.

'Mass summoning.'

A whole lot of portals opened around Ryoku, and out all of them various deformed creatures came. They were with enough to form a small army. Ryoku stood in front of them and showed them both the scrolls. 'Find and destroy these scrolls, but try not to injure anyone of the leaf village. As for the rest, do with them as you please.'

The beasts let out a chilling roar and all ran in different direction.

'What the hell are you doing?' Naruto asked.

'Taking out the competition, and weeding out the small fries at the same time.'

'Great idea, Ryoku. Can you transport us to the main building?' Iyami asked.

Naruto looked confused. He didn't heard the first part of the conversation and was clueless what this 'weeding' business was all about.

'Sure thing.' Ryoku made a portal in front of them. They all went trough.

* * *

'2 Minuets and 30 seconds,' Gai said impressed. 'That must be a new record.'

'Honestly, what's supposed to be so hard about this exam? what must we do next?' Ryoku asked bored.

'Wait for the other players that succeed, of course.'

Ryoku smirked. 'I can guarantee you that won't be many.'

After he said that, someone just walked in the room, it was a ninja out of bread. 'Gai, we have a problem!'

'What is it?'

'All of the other competitors have lost their scrolls! Many are injured and some are dead. None of them can continue onward.'

'Oh my, who would do such a horrible thing?' Iyami said amused.

'It seemed I've overestimated them, I thought at least one of them could beat my monsters.'

'You did this?!' Naruto said. He used a shadowclone to make a rasengan in his hand and was about to hit him in the face. 'I'm going to grind you to dust!'

Ryoku pulled two long blades out of dimensional holes. 'Bring it on, Ninetails!'

Gay and Iyami where barely able to hold back the two hotheads. 'C'mon Ryoku, he's not wort it!' Iyami said while trying to keep Ryoku from chopping Naruto's head off.

'Ha! Not wort it?!' Naruto said. 'I'll show you how much wort I am damn piece of...!'

After ten additional ninjas came to calm the two down, Gai told them what they had to do next.

'You tree will advance to the finals. There, you'll have to face of against each otter. Come prepared.'

* * *

Iyami, Ryoku and Naruto where quietly waiting until the tournament started. Iyami and Ryoku where passing the time with a game of chess. 'You know, there's a little problem,' Iyami said.

'And that might be?' Naruto asked.

'We are with tree, and all the battles are one on one. How are they going to fix this?'

'I don't know, but knowing Tsunade, something bad for us,' Ryoku moved his queen next to Iyami's king. 'Checkmate.'

'Hmm, you're pretty good at this game, for a beginner.'

'Iyami 'Hellfire', enter the stage!' They just heard.

'Looks like you may fight against nobody.'

'Yeah, but that's not half as bad as fighting Naruto,' Iyami said with a smirk.

'Hey, I can still kick your ass!' Naruto said challenging.

Iyami putted on his mask. 'I doubt it. I'm going.'

Iyami entered the arena and was welcomed with displeasure. 'It's that killer! Booh! Murderer! I hope they hurt you badly!'

Iyami just smiled behind his mask and waved back. 'Thank you, thank you. I like you just as much.'

Iyami went to the middle and awaited his opponent. He looked at where the Tsunade was watching the game. 'So who must I fight?' He said against no one in particular.

'Me,' a ninja stood in front of him, apparently he appeared from nowhere.

'Kakashi Hatake. Is it even fair that a poor little genin like me must fight a big mean Jounin, not to mention an ANBU member?'

'The chuunin exams are about evaluating how good your skills are, so it doesn't really matter who you fight.'

'Well, at least this will be more challenging than I expected. I've always wanted to try my skills against the famous white fang's son.' He chuckled.

'Just don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a genin, I know what kind of crimes you committed.'

'Just as many as you.'

'Ready? Go!'

Kakashi started his assault by rushing at Iyami at high speed. He tried a drop kick, but Iyami dodged it, just barely. _He's fast._

Iyami rammed his hand right in Kakashi's face and fired a fireball. Kakashi was sent flying, only to turn into a log halfway through the air. _And smart too, I expected no less._

Kakashi now attacked Iyami from behind with a storm of Shurikens's. He could barely dodge them and was scratched by a few of them. His opponent then started to attack him again with punches and kicks in quick session. Iyami had no time to perform any strong jutsu, because Kakashi was constantly keeping the pressure up. He was starting to get irritated. 'Buzz off! Crimson hell flare!!!'

Kakashi could just jump away in a nick of time, as all the ground around Iyami was engulfed in flames. He looked directly at Iyami, but doing so, caused him to freeze in place. 'Those eyes!'

Iyami walked slowly towards him, with his red eyes, they were shaped just like the Mangenko Sharingan, but Kakashi knew that, despite their look, it wasn't the Mangenko Sharingan. Kakashi felt as he drifted into an all too familiar Genjutsu.

* * *

Kakashi awoke hanging on a cross, he was chained. He was in a weird black, white and red world.

'Sure brings back memories, eh?'

Iyami stood in front of him with a knife. 'I've read your mind and saw you've already experienced the soft version,' he said while inspecting the top of the knife. 'But I can go on as long as I want. Because what I have, is nothing like the Sharingan.'

'Do your worst.'

Iyami sighted and threw away the knife. 'That's the problem, I can't kill you, nor crush your mind. It's just not me.'

'You kill entire villages but you can't kill me?'

'Ironic, isn't it? It's just, you remind me of someone. You've had your share of killings, just like me, but you're a good person at heart, I can see that in your head. You see, before I kill someone, I first do a quick mind scan. Then, if the person is good at heart, they live, if not, tough luck for them. So would you surrender?'

'No.'

'Would you _please_ surrender?'

'I said no.'

* * *

A long, long long time of brain messing latter….

* * *

'Hu? What was I asking again?' Iyami said confused.

'What do you mean?' Kakashi said. He was really surprised, it actually looked like he forgot.

'I remember asking you something, something… You had to say the words…'

'…I surrender?' Kakashi said helpfully.

The world around him started to fade, he knew the genjutsu was wearing off. 'Gotcha.'

* * *

'Kakashi surrenders, Iyami 'Hellfire' wins the match,' the judge said.

'No I don't.'

Iyami had to keep himself in not to laugh like a maniac. 'Yes you do, I just made you say it. Now if you excuse me.'

Iyami made it just back at Ryoku and Naruto before he started to laugh like crazy. 'He actually fell for it!' He wiped the tears off his face.

'So you got him with your little Genjutsu trick?' Ryoku asked. 'Nice one.'

'You just cheated!' Naruto said. 'Kakashi sensei would have beaten you to a bloody pulp if you didn't cheat!'

'Naruto, we are ninja's, since when does something exist like cheating?' Iyami pointed at Ryoku. 'You just concentrate on your match.'

'Naruto Uzumaki and Ryoku Irikuchi, enter the arena.'

The two walked to the centre of the arena. Most people applauded for the entry of the two, but there were some who looked at Ryoku in quietness. Ryoku knew that the people who where silent knew of his other name.

'I really don't want to hurt you,' Ryoku said. 'But then again, you do want to hurt me, don't you?'

'For all the people you've killed, damn right I would like to hurt you.'

They prepared themselves until the judge gave them the signal.

* * *

Ino was looking at the match from the tribunes. But she didn't came to see Naruto getting his ass handed down to him, despite how fun that could be, she came to see how Ryoku fights. There was something special about him. Words failed her to define that 'special', but there was one who came quite close, wild.

'Hi, Ino! Are these seat taken?' It were Ten Ten and Sakura.

'No. Please, have a seat.'

They sat down next to her and looked at Naruto and Ryoku. 'Who's that good looking?' Ten Ten asked.

'Oh, that's Ryoku, he's a new ninja that just got here.'

'Ryoku? I'm sure I've heard that name somewhere before,' Sakura said.

'Could be, I've heard he's a rather infamous S-ranked ninja,' Ten Ten said.

'Shht, It's starting.'

* * *

'Go!'

The words weren't out of the judge his mount before Ryoku disappeared and reappeared in front of Naruto. 'What the…?'

Naruto was so surprised by Ryoku's sudden appearance, he couldn't dodge his punch and was hurled away against a wall, leaving a small crater. While he fell back to the ground, Ryoku appeared before him again and punched him in the stomach, followed by disappearing once more and giving him a kick in his face. He then teleported back to the center of the arena.

Naruto got back up, surprised by Ryoku's insane speed.

Ryoku taunted him by gesturing him to come closer. 'C'mon Naruto. I toughed you were going to hurt me, or have you lost your nerve?'

Naruto made a hundred shadowclones in a wave of anger and ran with all of them towards Ryoku. But he just simply stood there making handseals. 'Forbidden jutsu, different dimension cutter.'

Ryoku made ten shadowclones of his own that all drew a curved blade out of a dimensional hole, and then they all disappeared. Naruto could only hear the swooping of ten swords as he searched the arena for his opponent. Ryoku reappeared behind Naruto, with his back turned to him. He was about to attack him again with his army of shadowclones, but he felt that something was wrong.

With a snap of his finger, all of Naruto shadowclones disappeared in one instant and Naruto fell that not only his shadowclones where attacked.

From all over his body, he could feel blood dropping down from cuts. The cuts where small and didn't hit anything important, but where many.

Ryoku turned himself to face Naruto. 'Surrender now Naruto, or the next hundred cuts will be stabs instead.'

Naruto had already knelled down out of pure pain, unable to get up. Most of his mussels where cut trough. He was rubbing away the blood that was dropping into his eyes. 'I already told you, I don't know the meaning of 'giving up.''

Ryoku's hunter instinct was starting to surface. How he admired this boys tenacity. Perhaps he should treat him like he treated so many others, as prey…

Ryoku was shocked by this toughed. No! There are to many people for that! They would know his identity! And yet, the seduction was great to tear this boy apart, to make him suffer and scream for mercy. To claw, bite, tear, kill…

He let out a slight growl as he was trying to calm himself.

Naruto noticed that he wasn't paying attention, so he quickly made a Rasengan and attacked Ryoku with the intention of killing him. 'Die, monster!'

Ryoku easily dodged it and remembered the single rule he had in combat. Everything that tries to kill him must die, no matter who or what.

He hit Naruto in the face with incredible power. While Naruto flew away, he let out a roar of pleasure, now having a prey to play with.

Before Naruto could even land to the ground, Ryoku rushed at him with incredible speed and punched him from all directions using his powers to teleport.

When Naruto landed, he was a few broken bones richer.

'Get up!' Ryoku said. 'Unleash your demon! Attack me! The fun is only starting!'

Naruto got up for another attempt to hit him, but that failed miserably. His attacks where too slow due to his injuries. Ryoku dodged Naruto's slow attack and used him as a living punching bag. He backed Naruto against the wall of the arena, but still continued punching him. With one last punch, he hit the headband off his forehead.

As Naruto landed to the ground, the Genin could hardly even look straight. Yet, trough all his injuries, he crawled towards his headband and took it in his hands. He then lost consciousness.

Ryoku smiled bloodthirsty when he saw that his prey was at his mercy. He came closer to Narutoand looked down on him. A shame he didn't use his demon, Ryoku toughed. That would truly have been a magnificent battle.

What to do now? Ryoku wondered. Shall I torture him, eat him, kill him or maybe all tree? Not necessarily in that order, of course.

He took a sword out of a dimensional hole. No, he fought with his all, never showing fear. He earned a quick dead.

He was just about to deal the final blow, when he heard Iyami's voice in his head. '_Stop it Ryoku! This is madness!'_

Ryoku came back to senses, not yet, not here.

He did a few steps back and then gave a grim look at the judge. 'This match is over. I win.'

'R-Ryoku wins!' The judge stumbled.

He looked at Naruto, who was now being taken to the infirmary. 'Wait,' he said against one of the medical ninja's.

He made a small black hole and took a pen and paper out of it. He scribbled something down and gave it to the ninja. 'Give him this when he wakes up.'

'Sure, no problem.' Naruto was carried away.

Ryoku walked back where Iyami was. Iyami wasn't happy to see him.

'Ryoku, how could you let yourself get out of control like that? I toughed you already mastered it.'

'I don't know, but I'm in perfect control again. Don't worry about me.'

But the truth was he did now. It was because Naruto called him a monster, the thing he tried to hide now.

And he was right.

* * *

Naruto awoke in a hospital bed. His entire body was covered in bandage and everything hurted. He dreamed that he was fighting Ryoku and lost horribly. _No way, I could easily beat that guy. Thank god it was just a dream._

He saw a little piece of paper on his lap. He began to read it.

'Ready for a rematch any day.

Ryoku.'

He crushed the piece of paper in his hand. 'Shimata!'

* * *

Ryoku and Iyami now stood ready in the middle of the coliseum. The public was very quiet. There were only a few who whispered. 'The Beast and Hellfire? What are they doing here? Is that the headband of Konaha? Did Konaha hired them?'

Iyami gave Ryoku a serious look. 'Are you sure you're in control? Or else I just might as well kill myself.'

'Perfectly.'

Iyami smiled. 'Then let's give this public a show they will never forget!'

'Wait just a moment now.' Ryoku putted off his headband and wore it in front of his eyes. 'There, now you can't use your mind games.'

'Go!'

Both of them ignored the judge his signal.

Ryoku took a coin out of his pocket. 'Let's first determine who starts. Heads or tails?'

'Hmm, tails.'

Ryoku tossed the coin up. Just when it landed on tails, Iyami fired a ball of fire at Ryoku. He responded to this by throwing the coin at the ball. The ball exploded when it connected with the coin. Iyami saw how a few shurikens flew at him from out of the explosion. He quickly dodged them. 'You sure can aim good for being blind.'

Iyami then jumped in the air and fired multiple fireballs at him. But Ryoku let them all disappear in a black hole. Then, out of nowhere, the fireballs where shot at Iyami, followed by shurikens. Iyami could barely dodge them. As Iyami landed, Ryoku ran at him and drew a scythe out of a dimensional hole while doing so. Iyami could parry the swing of his scythe with a kunai. Ryoku then continued his assault on Iyami, while letting shurikens be shot at him from nowhere.

Iyami managed to grab Ryoku's scythe and pushed him away. Iyami had attached a tag on the scythe while grabbing it.

'Kaboom.'

The scythe exploded and Ryoku was retracted from sight. Iyami took joy from seeing how Ino, who he noticed, was now standing up to see better.

When the dust settled down, Ryoku was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be?

Iyami suddenly felt how the ground disappeared beneath his feat. He could quickly push his weight backwards so he wouldn't fall in the mysterious hole. As he fell, he saw that the hole was, as he suspected, a black hole created by Ryoku. Ryokujumpedout of the hole and summoned another above Iyami. A storm of swords flew out of the hole in an attempt to nail Iyami to the ground. But Iyami quickly responded to this by letting a huge column of fire appear around him. The swords melted before they reached him. Iyami then jumped out of the column of fire and quickly grabbed Ryoku and smashed him against the ground. He then made a fireball in his hand and putted it in front if Ryoku's face. 'Looks like I win. Though I have to ask, how did you actually knew where to attack without seeing?'

The Ryoku in front of him disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Iyami felt how a long blade was putted next to his neck. He looked over his shoulder: it was Ryoku, who was wearing his headband normally. 'Who said I couldn't see?'

'Humpf, guess this is your win then.'

They both walked away, not caring whether or not the judge heard Iyami's surrender.

'Do you think she'll make us Chuunin's?' Ryoku asked.

'I've beaten a Jounin, and you've beaten me. Damn straight she'll make us Chuunin's.'

'Don't worry, I'll make sure she will.'

They both disappeared.

* * *

Yiraiya was looking at how Iyami and Ryoku disappeared into nothingness, he then turned his attention to Tsunade, who was looking rather grim.

'Quite a show there. But was it really necessary to make them do this? I mean, you sent Naruto, a genin, on A-ranked missions all the time.'

'I didn't did this just to piss them off, mind you. I did this so that the other villages would be aware that those two are under my control. This way, the other villages will become a lot more kinder.' She stood up from her chair and looked over the crowd. 'I also wanted to know what I'm up against. I still don't trust them.'

Yiraiya now walked next to her and looked at the crowd as well. 'Spies from Akatsuki, perhaps?'

'Doubt it. Ryoku 'The Beast' and Iyami 'Hellfire' are two lone wolfs. They would never work together with others, it would mean splitting the money. That's why I was so confused they wanted to join us.'

'Ah well, maybe you're just wrong. Maybe they have no evil intends after all.'

Tsunade looked even more troubled. 'I hope so.'

While Yiraiya took his leave, Ryoku appeared next to her. She wasn't even surprised to see him.

'Your game has lasted long enough, make us chuunin's,' Ryoku said on a demanding tone.

Tsunade didn't liked the demanding tone of Ryoku one bit. S-ranked ninja or not, she wasn't going to let herself be bossed around by a bloodthirsty teenager.

'And what if I refuse?'

Ryoku grinned. 'Then I will participate in the next Chuunin exams. But this time, I will kill every other person who dares to participate. And the blood will be on your hands, Tsunade.'

She looked firmly in his eyes to see any trace of bluffing. There where naught. In fact, it looked like he was hoping that she would say no.

'Very well, you two are now Chuunin's.'

Ryoku grinned. 'A wise decision.'

Ryoku walked away. Damn, he felt disgusting. He wouldn't kill everyone in the chuunin exams. Well, he would, because it's his hunters instinct and he loves the trill of the kill, but he wouldn't because... because...

He shook his head. What was going on with him? He used to love to kill people, the fact he almost did it to Naruto proofs it. But there was something that was holding him back, stopping him. Moral compass? No, he ditched that a long time ago. Pity? Nope, he never spared his prey.

He smiled. It must be her, she was remembering who he was, that good, kind person. Could it be that, after all these years of bloodshed, there was still something left of that man?

He shook his head again. Bah, what utter nonsense. Emotions are for weaklings. Thanks to emotions, you become careless. Thanks to emotions, you get hurt.

He toughed about Lei Lei. Thanks to emotions, you die...


	6. Chapter 6: first mission

Chapter 5: endless suffering

Ryoku returned from his mission, with the captured ninja he was asked to take with him. As he entered his village, a blond figure ran towards him. It was a blond woman that he knew very well. She ran toward him, smiling. _Lei Lei…_

Then suddenly, her happy face turned into surprise. She fell to the ground. Ryoku rushed over to her. He took her in his arms, only to see the shurikens that were stuck in her flesh. She was dead.

Ryoku felt a pain worse than any mortal wound could inflict. That pain began to subdue, and in its place, anger, hate and bloodlust came. A red fog slowly took over his consciousness.

When he awakened, he was standing in the burning remains of the village. He looked at his hands. He was carrying a katana. It was drenched in blood, together with his hands. He heard a sound left from him. It sounded like someone crying. His burning anger turned into something much more malice. He turned to the left and found a building where the sound was coming from. He opened the door only to find a woman and a man, they looked up in fear to him. Ryoku noticed the golden ring at both of their fingers. This made him smile.

Unwillingly, he raised his sword. 'I'll show you my suffering,' he said. 'I'll make you understand.' Then he, he…

Ryoku awakened from his nightmare. He was panting heavily. He looked at his hands. No blood.

Ryokustarted to calm down. He was in the bed of a cheap hotel Iyami and he took yesterday. He stood up and went outside for a walk.

* * *

Iyami was sleeping peacefully, until he sensed a disturbance in the air. He stood up and went Ryoku's room to check on him, he wasn't there. Iyami went outside to go look for him. With his powers to sense chakra, he found him somewhat farther from the village main gate, apparently training. 'What's on your mind?' Iyami asked.

Ryoku was doing some push ups with one hand. 'I had that dream again. Only that now I know the true meaning of it.'

'And that would be?'

He switched to his other hand. 'That life just gives you one shot. Mess it up, and you're finished.'

'Well, the fact that she appears here shows that life does gives second chances, doesn't it?'

Iyami looked back at the village. 'Why haven't you spoken to her yet anyway?'

Ryoku toughed back at all the leaf villagers who despised and hated him. 'I don't care what other people call me. But if she would look at me just like the rest of them do… that would be too much for me to bear. Besides…' He stood back up. 'In my other life, I wasn't a, a,…'

'Foul beast?'

'Yes.'

Ryoku sighted. 'Like I said, life doesn't give you a second chance. Even if it is her, people never become befriended with monsters.'

'That isn't true and you know it. You aren't such a monster as you think you are, Ryoku. You just where forced into this life. She also doesn't see you as a monster. When I was at the other side of the village, she came to me.'

Ryoku's heart filled with a little bit of hope. 'What did she say?'

'She asked me to thank you. She didn't even needed to know why. And also to give you this back.' Iyami gave Ryoku the pendant he lost.

Ryoku stared at the trinket, surprised. He then tied it back to his neck. 'How is your research going?' Ryoku asked, trying to change the subject.

'I read some documents about the Sharingan and Byatugan. Both show similarities to what I have, but not quite.'

'Maybe your parents had them?'

'Unlikely. Before the Uchila clan was wiped off the face of the earth, there was quite some rivalry between the Uchila's and the Hyuuga's. A marriage between the two would not only be humiliating for both families, but also seen as an act against god himself.' Iyami looked a bit disappointed. 'No, that theory is a dead end.'

'Don't worry, we'll find the answers to your past, eventually.'

Iyami was about to say something, when his look turned grim. 'I sense someone.'

Ryoku immediately grabbed a kunai. 'Hostile?'

'Very, and it's a she.'

They awaited their foe to make the first move. Time slowly passed by. When suddenly, a kunai with chain flew trough the air, aimed right at Ryoku's face.

Ryoku dodged the kunai and grabbed the chain attached to it. He then gave a strong pull on it. Out of the blackness, a womanly figure was pulled. She was still holding the chain firmly. 'let me guess,' Ryoku said. 'You want me dead?'

She quickly threw a shuriken at Ryoku, but it disappeared in mid-air and somehow reappeared in front of her left shoulder. She was hit by the shuriken and fell to the ground. Iyami quickly responded to this by rushing over to her and holding a kunai to her neck.

'Do with me what you please,' the woman said. 'But don't expect me to beg for my life.'

'Tempting. But before it comes to that, answer my question. Why did you attack me?' Ryoku asked.

'I had relatives in the village you destroyed. And their blood calls for revenge.'

Ryoku sighted. 'Where they ninja's?'

'What does it mater to you?'

Ryoku approached her and pulled the shuriken out of her shoulder. 'I only hunt worty prey. There is no honor nor challenge in hunting something that can't fight back. So if they weren't ninja's, they are still alive.'

Ryoku put his hand on her wound. 'Blood exchange,' he whispered.

The wound vanished, as if it never existed.

Iyami saw the woman no longer as a treat and removed his kunai from her neck. 'Go home,' he said.

'You're not going to kill me?' She asked.

'Killing people so early in the morning isn't my style. It's bad for my sleep, you know?' He yawned loudly.

After Iyami said that, the woman quickly ran away with high speed.

'Let's get back to sleep,' Ryoku said.

Halfway back to their hotel, Ryoku's left shoulder started bleeding. Iyami noticed this and he grinned. 'Seems that this village is already making you soft.'

'I only performed that jutsu so that I didn't get even more trouble, okay?' Ryoku said angry.

'It's hard enough with the ANBU practically breathing down my neck.'

They went back to sleep, without dreams.

* * *

The next morning they were asked at Tsunade's office, where they would receive their first mission. 'First off all,' Tsunade said. 'We will give you two a group leader.'

'Thank you, but that's unnecessary. We can handle ourselves very well,' Iyami said.

Tsunade gave Iyami an angry look. 'Sorry Tsunade.'

'This leader will answer directly to me, so you better listen to him.'

She looked at the door. 'You can come in now.'

Treb walked trough the door. 'Who must I…'

He looked shocked at Iyami and Ryoku. 'Oh hell no! I'm not becoming the leader of these two!'

'He got's a point there,' Ryoku said. 'He isn't capable of something like that.'

Treb ignored the burn.

'I don't care what you tree think of it,' Tsunade said. 'This is my will.'

Iyami sighted. 'Very well. If you think that as my superior this is the best decision, I shall respect that.'

'Good.' Tsunade looked at a document. 'Your first mission will be the following: you must interrogate a certain man by the name of Firio Yokshi. We have reasons to believe he has some connection with Atatsuki. He isn't a very good ninja, but he should have a lot of bodyguards, so be on your guard.'

'That shouldn't be much of a problem,' Ryoku said.

'Where was his last confirmed location?' Treb asked.

'Or informants tell us he is heading to the village of Mangen.' She looked angry at Iyami and Ryoku. 'The one you two destroyed.'

'Oh yeah, that one,' Iyami said. 'They have great Ramen there.'

'Had,' Ryoku corrected.

'Anyway, make sure you intercept him before he finds out that there isn't much left of the village.'

'Is that all?' Ryoku asked.

'Yes.'

'Good, let's go.'

And before Tsunade could wish them good luck, they vanished.

* * *

Treb found himself in the most amazing experience of his life. The one moment he was standing in Tsunade's office, the other in the remains of the Mangen village. 'Huh?! What the hell happened?!' Treb said surprised. 'How did we get here?'

'I can open portals to other dimensions and places,' Ryoku said impatient. 'That's why we got here so quickly. Now let's go.'

'Just a second! Tell me first about you guy's abilities. I need to know stuff like that as a leader.'

'Fine then, I'll start,' Iyami said while rolling his eyes. 'I have some sort of special eyes. How I got them, I don't know. These eyes gives me the power to feel chakra, predict my opponents attacks and pyromancy. I can also read people minds and alter those minds. Though I need to make eye contact for that.'

'Read minds? I don't believe that. Prove it.'

Iyami looked him directly in the eyes. 'Very well.' A minute or two passed, then Iyami turned his look away. 'You are from the Hyuuga clan, your favorite color is blue, you prefer women with a lot of spirit, your birth day is September 12, your favorite hobby is sparring with other ninja's and you're wearing black boxers,' Iyami said with a grin.

'Wow, that was,… creepy. But you can also read chakra, can you tell me how much chakra I have?'

'Sure thing. Your chakra level is currently… 3790.'

'Thank you.' He turned his attention to Ryoku.

'Ok. But how did you acquire your talent? That's no ordinary techniek that anyone can perform.'

'Very simple. It's my bloodline limit.'

'Then how come I've never hear of such a bloodline limit.'

'Because nobody of my clan uses it. Opening and stabilizing such a portal would require so much chakra, that the person would die by doing so.'

'And what gives you so much chakra to do this almost all the time?'

'That would be because my chakra is several times bigger than others.'

'How much bigger?'

'Iyami, what was the highest point that my chakra has ever risen?'

'Oh, I dunno. A tailed beast or four? In numbers about 19 896 534.' Iyami said nonchalant.

'Let me guess, it's because of your blood?'

Ryoku was shocked to hear that Treb new of this, but he was able to hide his surprise. 'I suppose I couldn't hide that forever, especially from a Hyuugaa. Very well, I'll tell you all about it. But keep it a secret or I will kill you in such horrible way you can't even imagine it, got it?'

Treb nodded, knowing very well what Ryoku was capable of.

'In my original village, I was born and raised to be the ultimate ninja. To do this, they did some experiments on me. I don't know the exact details, but one of the thinks they did to me was partly replace my blood with a pure concentration of all chakra types. Thus, resulting in my astounding chakra. Now that we got that out of the way, can we start our mission?'

Treb had a feeling that Ryoku wasn't telling him everything, but he knew he would find out soon enough. He looked at Iyami. 'Iyami, can you tell us where our mark is?'

'He's about 1000 miles east from here. His chakra level is nothing out of the ordinary. I also sense he has 2 friends with him, they don't pose much of a treat either.'

'Very well. Ryoku, can you teleport us right behind them?'

'No problem.'

The threesome where whisked away almost instantly. And like Treb asked, they where now standing behind tree ninja's in the middle of a forest. Their mark was easily recognizable by the expensive clothing and his small size. The two other looked like hired ninja's.

Treb was just about to knock one of the two hired ninja's out, when they both fell trough a black hole in the ground. The hole disappeared immediately after the ninja's fell through it. 'Huh?! Where did you guys go?!' The remaining man said confused. But he too fell trough a black hole in the ground, only to be stuck in it with only his head sticking out. Ryoku walked in front of him.

'What are your connections with Akatsuki? Speak, if you hold your life dear.'

The small man was frightened, Ryoku could smell it, but he still had control over his voice. 'Akatsuki? I don't know anything about Akatsuki.'

Ryoku raised his arm, the black hole started to get smaller.

'Look, even if I did know anything, I wouldn't tell you anything! The Akatsuki will do thinks much more terrible then you would do.'

Iyami also walked in front of him. 'We'll just see about that.'

'Can you read his mind, Iyami? I don't think he's going to say anything.' Treb asked.

'Sure.' Iyami looked into his eyes. The little man started to sweat, then he started to wriggle.

'What's taking so long, Iyami?' Ryoku asked.

'He's got a strong psychological defense. He truly fears those Akatsuki.'

'Well, try harder. Fry his brain for all I care.'

'Very well.' The little man started shouting out of pure pain. It was a sound that pierced trough flesh and bone. The screaming suddenly subdued. And the little man disappeared trough the black hole. 'Fuck!' Iyami shouted. 'Lets get out of here, it's a trap!'

But before he even finished his sentence, Ryoku heard the sound of flying shurikens. He quickly pushed Treb out of the way. Where he was standing, a dozen of shurikens landed.

'You okay?' Ryoku asked.

'Yeah, I'm fine. But I think they will make a difference about that.' Treb pointed towards a tree formation. 20 ninja's or more where standing there, and they where all bearing the motif of Akatsuki on their clothing. The trio looked around themselves. Only to find it where not 20 ninja's, but rather 100. They where completely surrounded. Fuck, Treb toughed.

'Hehe, not bad, but I toughed the legendary duo would do it a little bit more stealthy,' a voice from the crowd of ninja's came. A man came forward out of the crowd, it was the small, rich man. 'It seems the 'Lords of Armageddon' are losing there edge.'

Iyami looked angry at the little man. 'You! How did you stop my ability?! I should have been able to sense you from miles away!'

'Very simple, my boy. My little 'double ganger', as you might call him, had a specific justsu implanted into him. From the moment you entered his mind, your senses where temporarily shut down, and that's when we made our move. Oh, and don't try to escape either. Your little 'Beast' can't warp you out as long as I'm around, it's one of my talents.' The little man smiled arrogantly. 'However, we didn't come here to assassinate you.'

'Then what the hell do you want, tiny?' Ryoku asked.

'Well, my superiors believe that you would be a great addition to our forces. Why, they even may go as far as letting you two 'attend' to the little 'Fox' in Konoha. Of course, in return for this service, you can have anything your hearth desires. Power, money, fame, all will be Akatsuki to have.' He pointed toward Treb. 'Of course, your friend will have to be dealt with. A reasonable offer, don't you think?'

'Don't listen to this guys,' Treb said. 'He's trying to mess with…'

'Quite,' Ryoku said. He then chuckled and lowered his head. 'Your offer is very generous and kind, I might have taken this offer a few days ago… however!' Ryoku said while looking directly into the man's eyes. 'I am Ryoku 'the Beast!' I have never failed a mission in my entire career! And I won't let some smug little piece of shit like you undo that. That's why I will protect the people of Konaha!

'Oh please. Why would you fight for them? Those people see you as a monster and a freak. It's not like they would do the same for you,' the little guy said a little irritated.

Ryoku sighted. 'That's true, in their eyes I am a beast, and I can't blame them. But even that knowledge won't stop me from doing my duty.'

The little man seemed shocked for a while, but he then shook his head. 'Fool, have you gone insane? There is no possible way you can kill all of us and survive. Let me tell you what your options are: join us or die!'

Ryoku made a quick series of hand seals. Iyami quickly recognized what he was planning and smiled. 'How about option tree? You leave us alone and we spare you!'

'Humpf, forget it. Get them, boys!'

The little army of ninja's drew closer. Rather then just rushing them, they circled around them, taking out there weapons very slowly. Treb followed their example and took out his blade, it shined in the sunlight.

Ryoku ended his series handseals with a last one and smiled. 'Blood, darkness, come unto me! Cage of pain justu!' Just when the ninja's where about to attack them, everything became dark before their eyes. It was so pitch dark, that it seemed that light no more existed. Treb quickly responded to this by activating his Byakugan, he quickly saw what happened. They and the ninja's where covered in a small dome of dimensional gates. It seemed that Ryoku had effectively locked everyone up in an inescapable prison. The rich man's voice pierced trough the silence. 'Very nicely done, Ryoku. It's only too bad that this Jutsu doesn't allow you to do anything else, does it?'

'I'm not done yet,' Ryoku answered. Trough the portals, water started flowing. It came in such mass, that they where quickly standing up to their torsos in the water. The flow then suddenly stopped. 'Wow, you made us wet. What are you trying to do? Try to give us a cold?' Some of the ninja's in the darkness laughed.

Ryoku looked at Treb, or rather, where he toughed Treb was standing. 'You know what to do.'

Nice move Ryoku, Treb toughed. He quickly rammed his sword in the water. 'Forbidden jutsu, impalement!' A 100 cry's of pain where heard as the water quickly turned into ice and impaled all with icy spears. All except Ryoku, Treb and Iyami.

Ryoku released his jutsu so that they might see the results of there attack. The jutsu worked to perfection, every ninja expect one was dead. The little man was still half alive. Ryoku released his jutsu while they walked towards him. 'How? How could I have failed?' He said while coughing up some blood. It looked like he would die very soon. The ice spear was rammed right trough his belly. Ryoku looked at the little man in disgust. 'Iyami, search his mind for information. Feel free to break anything in it while you're at it.'

'With pleasure,' Iyami said with a grin.

When Iyami was done with him, their mark finally died.

Treb looked at Ryoku, impressed by their combined teamwork. 'That was a nice move you pulled of right there, but did you truly meant what you said?'

'No, I'm a comedian. I say stuff like that all the time when I'm in mortal danger,' he said sarcastic.

Ryoku quickly chanced the subject. 'What have you learned, Iyami?'

'I'll tell you two when I have told Tsunade. But let me tell you this, Ryoku. Konaha is in for a bumpy ride.'

'In that case, we better go back to Tsunade.'

They were transported to her.

Tsunade was just eating some Ramen on her little brake, when her 'special ops' suddenly popped out of nowhere. She quickly hid the bole of Ramen. 'Can't you transport in front of the door and knock?!' She said angry.

'Sorry, Tsunade. Anyway, we have completed our mission,' Ryoku said.

'That fast? You have only been away for like 20 minutes,' she said surprised. 'What have you learned?'

Iyami put up a serious face. 'The Akatsuki have in their possession 7 of the tailed beasts. They don't yet know the location of number 8. So now they are planning to take number 9. In other words: they are coming for Naruto.'

Tsunade looked worried. 'This is extremely bad news. If Akatsuki would attack us full force, we wouldn't stand much of a chance. Do you know when they will attack?'

Iyami shook his head. 'No, but when they do, they are going to use all of their numbers.' Actually, they were just going to send one, but Iyami liked to prepare her for the worst.

'Thank you for the information, you can go now.'

They walked back outside. Once there, Treb returned his attention back to Ryoku and Iyami. 'So, what are you going to do now?'

'Oh, we'll be keeping ourselves busy with the secret scroll of this village. It can help us in the upcoming battle,' Iyami said.

'Okay, I'm going to train a bit. See ya later.' Treb walked away from the two.

Iyami and Ryoku walked further. Then, Iyami smiled. 'Funny, he didn't even try to kill us and claim the prices on our heads. There is hope for us yet. But seriously, is that how you truly feel about this village?'

'You should know of all people there was truth in that. It's what I at least feel for one person in this village. Even tough I might never be accepted.'

Iyami looked up to the setting sun. 'Only time will tell.'


	7. Chapter 7: Eye of the tiger

**Yeah, I know, this one came out a bit later. Mayby it was kind off a bad idea to write 2 story's at the same time. Anyway, enjoy.**

Naruto was just walking trough the village, when Treb suddenly came to him. 'Tsunade needs you, come with me,' he said with a grim face.

'Huh? What is it?' He asked.

'You'll see when you are there, and you aren't going to like it.'

They both walked to Tsunade's office, Naruto getting more curious with the minuet.

Once they arrived there, they noticed that Ino, Neji and Hinata where waiting at the front door. 'Hi, guys!' Naruto said enthusiastic.

'Uuumh,.. hi Naruto,' Hinata said uncertain.

'You're late,' Neji said grumpy.

'Yeah, I know, I know. But I just have to introduce you to my friend here! This is Treb, he used to be from the Hyuuga clan. Treb, this is Hinata and Neji.'

Treb shook there hands. 'It's a pleasure.'

'So, you're a hyuuga? How come I never saw you in the village?' Neji aksed.

'I was… honing my skills in faraway countries.'

They waited and talked for some time, until Tsunade opened the door of her office. 'You can come in now,' Tsunade said.

They all went in to hear the news. It looked like Ryoku and Iyami where already inside. Tsunade took a seat behind here desk. 'You have all heard the news about the Akatsuki going to attack the village, right?' Everyone nodded. 'Well, to prepare ourselves for their arrival, I have decided that you all will be training.'

'Who might be our Sensei's?' Ino asked.

'That would be Iyami, Ryoku and Treb.'

There was a moment of silence, when Naruto started to protest heavily. 'Okay, Treb I can understand, but there is no way I'm gonna call those two my sensei!'

'He makes a valid point, why don't you let a true sensei like Kakashi do this?' Neji asked.

'That's because we can't miss them in missions. We still need some people who do all the important missions.'

Neji sighted. 'Very well, who trains who?'

'Neji and Hinata will be training with Treb, Naruto will be training with Ryo…'

'Pardon me, Tsunade. But may I suggest something?' Iyami asked.

'Rather not, but go ahead.'

'My friend Ryoku here is very skilled in training people who are skilled in mind technieks. I would recommend someone with such powers to train under him.'

Tsunade seemed to think that for a moment. 'I see, Ino will be training under Ryoku and Naruto will be training under Iyami.'

Iyami grinned at Ryoku and gave him a wink.

'Good, when do we get started?' Neji asked.

'Right now. Follow me to my dojo, if you please,' Ryoku opened a black hole in front of them while saying that.

'You have your own dojo?' Treb said surprised.

'Yes, I do. Now can we get a move on?' He said inpatient.

Iyami and Ryoku went trough the hole without hesitation, then Treb and Neji followed.

Ino also walked trough the gate. 'See you two at the other side!'

Hinata made a few hesitated steps to the portal. When suddenly, Naruto took her hand. 'Don't worry, I'll help you trough this big scary thing.'

She was so surprised of this, that she fainted and fell trough the hole.

When Treb walked trough the gate, he immediately came into a big dojo. It was a large, open space with four pillars in the four counters. There also were a lot of paravan doors. 'What takes them so long?' Ino asked.

As she said that, Hinata fell trough the hole. Iyami rolled his eyes. 'It looks like someone has already fainted before we started.'

Naruto came trough the hole as well. 'Are you okay, Hinata?'

'I'm… fine,' she responded.

Ryoku smirked. 'I don't think the training is to blame.'

He walked to the middle of the dojo. 'Alright, I have special training halls for each of you. They should have all the thinks you need. Food, drinks, weapons, test dummies, you name it. Treb, you train here. Iyami and naruto will be training over here and I and Ino will be training here.' He pointed to the appropriate doors. 'What are you guys waiting for? Get going!'

They all went in their own rooms to start their training.

In Trebs Dojo…

Treb, Hinata and Neji took a look at their training hall. It looked pretty much the same as the one where they were, only with diverse weapons hanging on the walls and a small kitchen area on the left. Like the previous one, there were more paravan doors here. Treb took his sword and put it in a corner. 'Okay, before we get started, I need to know your abilities. That way, I can look what need improvement. You both fight me separately. However, there is a catch. We can't use your Byatugan.'

'But how are we supposed to fight then?' Hinata asked.

'I dunno, you figure that out. Who wants to go first?'

'I will,' Neji said.

Treb let as soon that he said that water erupted out of the ground where Neji was standing. The water made an orb around him and freezed, imprisoning Neji inside.

Treb then released the jutsu and walked toward him. 'If you had the Byutugan, you could easily predict this move and stop it or break free from it. However, you couldn't. Do you understand the importance of this lesson?'

'No.'

'How about you, Hinata? Do you have an idea why I didn't allow you two to use the Byakugan?

'Umm, no, I don't.'

'It's because you will find yourself sometimes in a situation where you can't rely on your normal abilities. For example: you have to fight a ninja, but he has effectively sealed of your Byakugan, what do you do?' Treb waited for a few seconds to hear a respond to his question, there was none, so he answered his own question. 'A ninja must be able to handle any kind of situation, even if the odds are against him. I can tell you two are very skilled with the Byatugan. But once the opponent has sealed that ability away, you are nothing. That's why I will teach you two to fight without it in such circumstances.' He took two bamboo swords of the wall and gave them to Hinata and Neji. 'Your first training will be trying to win from each other without the use of the Byatugan. Good luck.'

In Iyami's dojo…

Iyami looked at Naruto's angry face. It was clear to him he didn't like being here. 'Okay, I now you hate our guts real bad. But if you please try to behave a little bid, I'll make you powerful enough to beat the crap out of Sasuke.'

'Huh? How did you kne…? Never mind.'

'You're learning already. Now, will you behave?'

Naruto toughed about that for a minuet. 'Okay, I'll behave. So, what are you going to teach me? Powerful taijutsu? Fire Ninjutsu? Or mayby…'

Iyami rushed at Naruto direction with his fist raised. 'Dodge!'

Naruto was too surprised to react, and was thus hit in the face full force.

He fell to the ground and stood back up, with a nosebleed. 'Auw! What was that necessary for?!'

Iyami massaged his hand. 'A ninja must be prepared for an attack at all time. Before I'm getting to the good stuff, you must learn one of the most basic skills: dodging. Now…'

Iyami raised his hand in front of Naruto's face and concentrated his chakra in preparation for a fire attack. 'Dodge!'

In Ryoku's dojo….

Ryoku felt nervous. Of all people he had to train, it had to be her. _Curse you, Iyami._

'Well, uum, lets start off easy. Show me what you can do in a fight,' He said.

'Okay.' She immeadedly ran toward Ryoku and started throwing punches at him.

Ryoku could dodge them quite easily, but he was very surprised how little uncertainty there was in those punches. That reminded him that it was actually he that was uncertain.

Ryoku jumped back and looked at her. 'I can feel a great deal of power in your taijutsu. My guess is that you are a medical ninja, right?'

She smiled a bit. 'Heh, that's too good for a guess. How did you know?'

Ryoku bite in his finger. 'I'll tell you if you beat me. Summoning jutsu!'

In a poof a smoke, 10 ninja's appeared. But their faces where invisible.

'Go easy on her,' Ryoku said.

'Sure thing, boss,' one of them said.

They rushed towards here, but then one of them started to attack the others. Eventually it was chaos between the ten ninja's and they started killing each other. They disappeared in a puff of smoke.

'Mind body disturbance techniek, very impressive,' Ryoku said.

Ino looked with a played anger at Ryoku. 'Hey, you don't need to go easy on me. Don't you dare to think I'm too weak to go all out against.'

'So you noticed. All right, no more special treatment.'

Ryoku ran towards her, but disappeared halfway. _Where did he go?_

Ino then looked behind her, but it was already too late. Ryoku did a drop kick aimed at her feet. She was to slow to dodge and here knee was hit so hard, that her feet where lifted from the ground. While she was in mid air, Ryoku disappeared again.

She fell to the ground but came back up very quickly. She looked around here to find Ryoku.

Ryoku appeared behind her again and quickly took her into a handgrip. He had a kunai in his hand and putted it on her neck. 'Gotcha.'

But then Ino disappeared in a puff of smoke, Ryoku came to the conclusion he was holding a log. _Hmmm, I really shouldn't underestimate her._

Ryoku looked up to the sealing, where Ino had jumped to attack him. Ryoku jumped away and let Ino fall into a dimensional hole of his. He let her stop in the hole halfway.

'That wasn't too bad, I guess. I can't say you lack the enthusiasm.' He took Ino's hand and pulled her out of the hole. 'My sugesti…'

Before Ryoku could finish his sentence, an enormous explosion was heard. Naruto flew trough the wall and landed right before Ryoku's feet. 'Hi Naruto. How's training with Iyami?' Ino asked.

'Painful,' Naruto said.

Iyami's head popped up from the hole where Naruto flew trough. 'I toughed I said 'dodge', not 'fly through a wall,'' He said a little irritated.

He smiled at Ryoku. 'Sorry about that, Ryoku.'

'It's okay.'

Naruto quietly crawled back in the hole to Iyami.

Ryoku cleared his troath. 'Anyway, as I was saying, my suggestion is you practice a bit fighting yourself.'

'Myself?' Ino said surprised.

'Exactly. That way, you can learn your own weaknesses and try to erase them.' Ryoku let a dimension hole appear and out of it came a perfect copy of Ino.

'This clone of yours is like you in every way, save for the fact it doesn't understand human speech nor can kill you. It has only got your looks and fighting stile. Good luck fighting yourself, I'm going to rest a while, this jutsu has extracted almost all my chakra.'

Ryoku went trough one of the paravan doors.

Ino spended an entire hour fighting herself, eventually beating herself. But she was completely exhausted after the fight.

Ryoku then came back in, with a plate of food. 'I see you have defeated yourself, well done. But you must be pretty tired from that fight. So how about some food?'

'You can cook?' She said a little surprised.

He summoned a black hole and let a table and two chairs fall trough it. 'Indeed I can. I can do much more then just killing people, you know.'

He took a seat and gave Ino ramen with some thee. She first drank from the thee. Ryoku waited nervously for her response. 'This thee is great, how did you make it?'

'A lot off mint leafs, 2 drops of lemon and a good bit of honey. Pretty simple too make, actually,' Ryoku said relived.

'You don't say.'

They both ate up their food and resumed their training after that.

15 days of training and hard work passed. Neji and Hinata became stronger in fighting without there Byatugan. Neji still calls it, however, 'a waste of time.'

Treb spended his days training Neji and Hinata, also growing more and more friendly with Ryoku. He didn't befriended Iyami too much, as he sees him as 'an ass.'

Iyami enjoyed himself with target practice on Naruto and doing missions. Apparently, he was starting to get a little bit respect from the villagers.

Naruto went to sleep with several burning wounds the passing days. But he became more stronger because of this intense training.

Ino, aside from training with Ryoku, learned some excellent recipes from him. And the two enjoyed their long talks while eating.

Ryoku was doing his best to become the man he once was. He is constantly under stress to do his best around Ino.

After those fifteen days of training, they heard that there was a tournament somewhat farter from Konaha. But little did they know that this tournament was the beginning of the end for some of the young ninja's…

That day, Treb and Naruto rounded everyone up at the main gate for a special announcement.

When Ryoku, Neji, Hinata, Iyami and Ino where there, Naruto said his news with big enthusiasm. 'Alright everyone! You have all heard about the big tournament that is going to play close to the village hidden in the sand, right? Well, Treb and I got us some tickets there, we are actually participating!'

'Naruto, that's the dumbest idea you ever had. The tournament starts today and it takes us days to get there,' Neji said.

Naruto was very surprised to hear that. 'What?! Treb told me that it was in a week!'

He turned his attention to Treb. 'What are we going to do now, Treb?'

Treb smiled. 'Well, we just have to ask Ryoku to get us there.'

He looked at Ryoku. 'Is that okay with you?'

'Sure, no problem.'

'Thanks, Ryoku. You're awsome!' Ino said cheerfully.

She looked angry at the rest. 'Haven't you guys learned manners? Thank him!'

'Oh yeah. Thanks Ryoku,' Treb and the rest said.

Ryoku, still a little confused about his new state of 'awesomeness' made a dimension hole. 'Well, times wasting. Lets go.'

They all entered the hole.

On the other side, they came into a small lobby. It was apparently the waiting area before there match began. There were a few chairs, a table and a long hall. There were also some other ninja's waiting for their match. Rock Lee was there as well. 'Nice to see you guys here!' he said.

'Hi Rock Lee, your entering the tournament as well?' Naruto asked.

'Of course! Gay sensei said it would be good training for me.' He looked toward Ryoku and Iyami. 'What are they doing here anyway?'

'Why, we just want to make this tournament worth your time. It wouldn't be fun if there isn't a challenge to it, now would it?' Iyami said with a smirk.

Before Lee could say something against that, a voice was heard trough the room. 'Attention participants. Mystery participant no 2 and Gen Eric are asked to enter the stage.' One of the ninja's on the chairs stood up and went trough the hall.

Ryoku frowned his eyebrows. 'Mystery participant no 2, who could that be?'

'That would be you. I didn't mention your name so the people wouldn't freak out,' Treb said.

'Thank you.' Ryoku made a dimension hole.

'Good luck,' Treb said.

'Don't need it.' Ryoku walked trough the hole.

As Ryoku came at the other side, he was welcomed by the sound of applause. '…and here is our mystery participant from Konaha! But will he be able to defeat Gen Eric, a veteran of this tournament? Lets find out!'

Ryoku looked at his surrounding. He was in a coliseum, standing on a square field make of bricks in the middle. His opponent was right in front of him. He also noticed that in the tribunes, there was a separated part for the combatants. Ino and the rest were watching him. 'The rules of this match are simple!' the announcer said. 'You lose when you give up, fall out of the ring or get killed. Now, whit that said, begin!'

Ryoku opponent didn't attack him, but instead he preferred to try and scare him. 'Humph, you're no match for me. I have participated in this tourney for many years. I eat guys like you…'

Before he could say anything more, he disappeared in a black hole of Ryoku and was dropped outside the ring. 'I win,' Ryoku said.

'Woah! Never before has this tourney seen such a fast and flawless victory. This mystery participant is powerful indeed!'

Before the crowd was given chance to applause, Ryoku disappeared again and reappeared next to Iyami in the tribune for combatants. '5 seconds, you could have done better,' Iyami said.

'True, but I toughed it would be more polite to let him have his say.'

'Nicely done, Sensei!' Ino said.

'Uuh, thanks.' _Sensei? That felt weird…_

'Now, since our first match has ended so quickly, we shall immediately start with the second. Rock Lee and Mystery participant no 1, enter the stage!'

'This should be fun,' Iyami said with a smile.

'Hey Lee, don't you dare to lose from him!' Naruto said.

'Not planning to!'

Lee and Iyami went down to the arena.

'Ladies and gentlemen! The next mach will be more trilling then the previous one! On the left we have Rock Lee, a fighter from Konaha who specializes exclusively in Taijutsu! Can our mysterious challenger hold his ground?! Lets find out!'

'I still have to pay you back for what you said about my Sensei,' Lee said.

'And I'll say it again. Your. Sensei. Sucks,' Iyami said.

'Participants, begin!'

Lee immediately ran toward Iyami and started his assault, but Iyami easily dodged most of the attacks. 'Tell ya what,' He said while dodging his fists. 'I'll give you 30 seconds to try and hit me. Then it's my turn.'

Lee intensified his attacks, but they still didn't hit Iyami. '20…'

He then backed away and removed the weights from his feet. '10…'

Lee resumed his attack on Iyami, with much more speed and agility, but he still didn't hit more than air. Iyami then suddenly grabbed one of his fists. 'Zero.'

He punched Lee in the stomach with such incredible force, that it removed all the air from his lungs. Iyami then opened his hand and let a small fireball appear in it.

'Boom.'

The little orb exploded with tremendous force, and Lee was sent flying in the air.

But Iyami was far from done with him. He pointed both of his fingers to him while he was flying trough the air and started shooting more of the small orbs.

Blow after blow, Lee was hit by these orbs and went higher and higher in the air.

Then, Iyami suddenly stopped his attack and let Lee fall back to the ground. As he landed hard to the ground, the crowd cheered. 'Pfff, and you call yourself an taijutsu specialist? You're pathetic…'

Rock Lee slowly got back up. _He's strong,_ he toughed. _I guess I'll have to open the gates…_

'No my friend, you'll be long finished before you can open the gates,' Iyami said with a grin.

A shock went trough Lee as he took a closer look at Iyami's eyes. They looked very similar to the Sharingan, only this one was completely red, with multiple black circles around it.

'Ah, I see you have noticed my special eyes. It's been a while since I had to use the second level to dodge attacks.'

'You have, the Mangenko Sharingan?!' Rock Lee asked surprised.

'Oh no, I have something much better.'

It was only by one look, Lee started to feel immense pain. He screamed it out of pain and was wriggling on the ground. Iyami slowly walked toward him and sighted. 'That's the problem of having no gen- or ninjutsu's, you can't stop genjutsu's. Now please give up. As much as you think I do, I dislike this torment thing.'

Iyami looked at Ryoku in the tribunes and picked up his thoughts. _Iyami, stop it. He doesn't deserve this._Iyami sended a telepathic message to him using his eyes. _Doesn't deserve this? He is like one of them. Scum that only dream of what they want to accomplish without… _

Iyami was shocked of his last sentence. _Wait, what scum? Who are they? Has it something to do with my past?_

He felt a memory pop up in his sub-conscious, just out of reach of him. The only thing he could remember where emotions. Pain, suffering, joy, triumph, power.

He felt a headache come up. _I can't… remember…_

This headache caused Iyami to slightly lighten the Genjutsu and this is when Lee grabbed his chance. He came back up and started opening the gates.

The massive release of chakra pushed Iyami away. _Impossible! _He toughed. _There is no way he can open the gates when under this much pain!_

'Opening the fifth gate!' Now Lee was really starting to scream out of pain. After the power up, he stormed right at Iyami and hit him fully in the face. Before Iyami could react, he was hit in the air by a kick. In the air, Lee continued to hit him upward with a series of kicks and punches. He then loosened his bands around his arms and bounded Iyami with them. 'Prime lotus!' He grabbed Iyami and flew to the ground in a attempt to slam him into the ground. Iyami had just enough time to use one hand seal. 'Fire jutsu, flame body!'

Iyami was set aflame. And instead of smashing against the ground, he drilled right trough it.

Lee landed back to the ground and looked inside the hole. _Did I get him?_

Iyami jumped out of the hole at incredible speed. And punched Lee with a uppercut set aflame.

Rock Lee was hurled back. He came back up, but then felt that the effect of the gates was over. He now was completely drained of all his energy.

Iyami cracked his neck and wiped his blood of his face. 'You fought well but now your finished. Give up or perish.'

'I won't just give up,' Rock Lee said with the greatest effort. 'You insulted Gai Sensei.'

'Lee, don't be a fool. I can obliterate you with ease and you still want to fight?'

'I don't care.'

'Suit yourself.' Iyami rushed to him and started to punch him with fists set aflame. A small explosion was heard with every blow. He punched Lee to the end of the stage, one more step backwards and he was done for.

Rock Lee's sight was getting vague, but he was still standing.

Iyami let a giant fireball appear at the top of his finger. He hold it into the air and let it became bigger and bigger until it was roughly 20 inch in diameter. 'I'll count to five,' he said slowly. 'Then I'll end this fight if you don't surrender.'

'I won't surrender.'

'One…'

_So this is how I die…_

'Two…'

_Gay sensei…_

'Tree…'

_I'm sorry…_

'Four…'

_For my shortcomings…_

Lee awaited the finishing blow, but it didn't came. He looked at Iyami and noticed he is smirking.

'It looks that I was mistaking,' Iyami said. 'You are a true ninja. It doesn't mater what a ninja can or cannot do, it maters that he fight for his ideals and to protect his friends. You have shown yourself more worthy of carrying the title 'Shinobi' then myself.'

Iyami let the fireball disappear and raised his hand in the air. 'I give up,' he said loud enough for the crowd to hear.

'WAT!? Incredible! Mystery participant 1 has just surrendered himself to Rock Lee, even though he was completely dominating the fight! What a strange chance of events!'

'Now, you better win this tournament,' Iyami said grumpy. 'I don't want my 'loss' to be in vain.'

'So, you didn't mean what you said about Gay?'

'Of course not. I just wanted to rattle your cage a little bit.'

The two went back to the tribunes.

'What do you think?' Iyami asked Ryoku. 'It took longer than yours, but it was more spectacular, don't you agree?'

'Showoff.'

'Need any healing, Rock Lee?' Ino asked.

'Nah, keep your strength for you own match.'

'Dear fans! We will now have a fifteen minuet break to repair the stadium. Our next match will be a double match, with Neji and Hinata Hyugaa versus the sealing brothers! Place your bets now!'

'The sealing brothers? Now those are some worthy opponents.' Iyami turned his attention to Neji and Hinata. 'Hate to break it to you, but you two don't stand a chance. The sealing brothers are known to seal of various sorts of jutsu's, including bloodline limits.'

'Bah, nonsense. It's impossible to seal of bloodline limits,' Neji said assured.

'Oh, you dare to say our powers are a fake?' A voice said from behind them.

They turned around, it were the two guys. They were completely balth, save for a pony tail.

'You'll better take your word's back, for your sake!'

Iyami smiled at the duo. 'Ah, you two are still alive? I kind of hoped that we had killed you in our last encounter.'

'Ha! It takes more than fire to defeat us.'

'The Sealing brothers are not that easy to finish off!' The two were going to attack Iyami and Neji, until Ryoku step in between them. 'Calm down people, I'm sure there is a very bloody way to end this after the tournament.'

They seem to become more calm. 'Hmpf! Very well. Those Hyuuga's are a weak bunch anyway.'

'When our match comes, we will let you scream out of pain!'

The two walked away.

'Charming bunch, aren't they?' Iyami said.

'Very,' Treb replied.

They all waited for the next match.

**Tune in till next time!**


	8. Chapter 8: hatred rivied

Chapter 7: hatred revived.

'Alright, the moment you've all been waiting for! In the left, Neji and Hinata Hyuuga. And on the right, the Sealing brothers!'

Neji and Hinata were standing in the newly made ring, making themselves mentally prepared for the fight. The two brothers looked at them like insects.

'For Hyuuga scum, we don't know mercy!'

'My brother and I, we will kill thee!'

In the tribunes Ryoku was talking to Treb. 'Don't you think you should be at least a bid worried?' Ryoku asked.

'Naah, they'll be all right. Especially with the training I have given them.'

'Really? I'm quite curious what kind of 'training' you have given them.'

'You'll see. Besides, Hinata has some 'stimulation,'' Treb said while looking at naruto.

'Is everyone ready?! Get set…'

Before the announcer was finished, the two brothers made a quick handseal. When the handseal was finished, Neji and Hinata felt a slight pain.

'Sealing of Genjutsu! Your genjutsu is useless!'

'Sealing of bloodline! Your Byakugan has lost it coolness!'

Neji tried to activated his Byakugan, but nothing happened. He then rushed to one of the two brothers. '128 palms!' Neji executed the attack perfectly, but it had no effect.

'Ha, that tickles!'

'Now, watch how our attacks rhythms!'

Neji tried to attack the duo, but they just dodged all of his attacks and countered them with a fury of punches. Hinata rushed to aid him, but they already threw him out of the ring before she arrived there.

'Neji is out! It's now down to Hinata against the sealing brothers!'

'Meh,' one of the brothers said. 'You go rest, brother. She isn't worth your time.'

'Very well, I shall sleep just fine.' The other one took a nap.

He turned his attention back to Hinata. 'Well, what are you going to do now?'

She ran towards him. '64 palms!'

Her opponent had no intention of dodging the attack. _Useless, she can't use her 64 palms effectively._

But when her first palm landed, he felt a pain trough his body as his chakra point was shut down. 'H-how?!'

She continued the attack, and then pushed him hard enough away for a ring-out. The other brother just woke up and saw his brother flying towards him. 'What the...?'

He and his brother were both thrown out of the ring.

'Hinata wins and will advance to the next match!' The announcer said.

'Good techniek,' was Ryoku comment. 'But how did she execute the attack without her Byatugan?'

'Very simple,' Treb said. 'I let her study every chakra point. That way, she can still use the gentle fists even though she isn't using the Byakugan.'

Hinata came back to the tribunes. 'Nicely done, Hinata! We should spar some times!' Naruto said.

'Alright! Now for the next tag match! It's a another that team match with Ino … and Naruto Uzumaki versus Steve Figa and Retan Shimshira! Paticipants, please move to the ring!'

Ino and Naruto moved to the ring. But Ryoku stopped Ino halfway. 'Ino, be carful. I have a bad feeling about this Shimshira.'

She toughed about setting his mind at ease, but then she saw the serious impression on his face. 'Okay.' She went to the ring.

'You seem rather flustered,' Tim said. 'Care to say what's wrong?'

'That guy was one of the men responsible for destroying my life. But it can't be him, I killed him.'

'You mean he's the assassin of…?'

'Yes.'

'So what your going to do when it is him?'

'If it is him, I will tear him apart, no matter what the consequences.'

'Then let's hope your wrong. But I'll check his mind to assure you.'

A few second passed. 'Strange,' Tim said while frowning. 'I can't seem to access his mind. That must mean he has some sort of special power or…'

'He known's of our presence and is blocking your powers on purpose.'

'Yes.' Tim started to get grumpy. 'Now I have got a bad feeling too.'

Ino and Naruto had already arrived at the ring and inspected their opponents. It were two men, both of them hooded. She could only see the blood hungry eyes of the one called Retan. 'Hehehehe, so the rumors are true,' Retan said. 'You're still alive.'

'Hu? How do you mean?' Ino asked.

'Oh? So now we're suffering from memory los? No matter, we just came here for 'him.'' He looked into the direction of Ryoku. He chuckled. 'But now you back from the dead, I will enjoy killing you, again.'

'You wish, weirdo!' Naruto shouted. 'Come on Ino, lets give these guy's the beating of his life!'

'Right.'

'Everyone ready?! Get set and… go!'

Naruto started with his shadowclone jutsu, making several copies of himself. Retan, on the other hand, was making a quick succession of handseals and then cut himself in the hand with a kunai. 'Forbiden jutsu, soul eating sacrifice.'

Blood came out of Retan hand. It the moved to his partner and made a circle around him.

'What?! No, please don't!' His partner begged.

'Don't take it personal,' Retan said. 'It's just your only purpose.'

His partner had just enough time to scream before the blood engulfed him. The figure in blood struggled a bid, but then fell to the ground. When the blood withdrew, the body had disappeared. The blood then sipped into the ground. When the last drip of blood disappeared, so did al Naruto's shadowclones. 'Hu? Where have my clones gone to?'

'Naruto, your legs!' Ino yelled.

Naruto looked down his leg to see that the blood that had sipped away had clenched onto his legs. He was unable to move. Then, the most unexpected happened. He fell to the ground unconscious.

'You… What have you done with Naruto?!' Ino shouted.

'Oh, nothing special,' he said quite enough for the crowd to not hear him. 'I just merely let the tailed beast within him consume his soul. Once he's done with him, the tailed beast will be released. And all that for just one human sacrifice. Pretty good, don't you agree?'

In the tribunes, Tim had told Ryoku what he heard from the conversation with his powers. 'Okay, that's it. We have to step in,' Ryoku said.

'Don't be foolish. For all we know this whole stadium could be filled with friends of him.'

Ryoku eased up a bit. 'Fine, but if he hurts her, he will die.'

Back in the ring, Ino started her assault. She attacked Retan and he didn't dodge one of the attacks. He just let all her fists hit him. She then jumped away and threw a few shurikens at him. He did dodged these. 'I see he has trained you,' he said while his wounds disappeared.

'Yeah, in beating the crap out of freaks like you,' she said.

'But unfortunately, he didn't teach you to stop jutsu's like this.' He made a hand seal. 'Blood freeze.'

Ino felt how the blood in her veins became as cold as ice and her heartbeat started to slow. She quickly noticed that the source of that cold was the blood of Retan, that her hands were covered with. He then made his approach to her and grabbed a kunai. 'Time to die.'

'I couldn't agree more,' a voice left of him said.

He could just see out of the corner of his eye that Ryoku had teleported right next to him. Then Ryoku's fist hit his face with enormous strength. He felt how all the bone in Retan's lower jaw was crushed. 'You okay?' Ryoku asked while Retan was smashed away. 'I'm fine. The jutsu seems to have worn out.'

Tim and the rest had already landed next to Ryoku. They had come through the black hole that Ryoku had created to attack Retan. 'Can somebody please explain to me what the hell is going on?!' Treb asked.

Tim turned himself to him. 'Okay, hotshot. Here's the situation. That guy is after Ryoku and has used an extremely powerful jutsu on Naruto that will eventually release the nine tailed demon fox in him and crush us to tiny little bits. He's bad to the bone and has no doubt some kind of master plan to rule the world or destroy it, happy? '

'And you didn't tell us that earlier why?' Neji asked.

'Because you didn't asked.'

Retan was standing back up. His hood had fell off, revealing his face. He had dark eyes sparkling with something primal. His forehead was protected by a headband. Instead of having a mark of his village, it was rusted by blood. He had short dark hair and a pointy chin. At least, he _had_a pointy chin since it stood in an unnatural direction by Ryoku's attack. 'As powerful as 3 years ago, Ryoku.' A sick sound was heard as the bone in his yaws sprung back into place all by itself. Ryoku turned his attention to Retan. 'Guys, heal Naruto. I'll deal with him,' he said.

'You can't face him alone, let me help you,' Ino suggested.

'No, your healing is needed to for Naruto. Besides, this is personal.'

She doubted for a second, then agreed and went to heal Naruto.

Trough the stadium, the voice of the announcer was heard, only this time he was clearly very nervous. 'Attention, this stadium has officially been taken over by organization 'Nemesis'.

Please remain calm and seated and you will not be harmed.'

A shock of fear went through the crowd. A middle aged man tried to run away, but was cut down by a ninja in the crowd in the attempt.

'Let them go, Retan. This is between you and me,' Ryoku said.

'On the contrary, it has nothing to do between you and me,' Retan said with a smile. 'You see, I have been send here by the good doctor to test out how your powers have developed. He still wants after all these years his finest creation back: you.'

'He is still alive?'

'Oh yes, and he longs to you. But just to make things interesting,' he said with a vengeful smile. 'I have a document about his whereabouts with me. Kill me, and you might be able to safe that pathetic village.' He took the scroll out of his pocket and threw it aside. 'Oh, and one more thing. In thirty minutes, this stadium will be send to oblivion by our explosives.'

Ryoku stormed at him. 'Then better not waste any time!'

* * *

'How's Naruto holding up?' Treb asked Ino.

'Not good, the seal is already fading.'

'I can remake the seal, you heal him,' Tim said.

'And what are we supposed to do?' Lee said.

Tim looked into the direction of the crowd. 'Take care of 'them' while we heal Naruto.'

Lee, Neji, Hinata and Treb turned around to notice some of the ninja's that hold the crowd hostage had climbed down and were approaching them. 'Oh wonderful, the welcoming committee,' Treb said while drawing his sword.

Neji activated his Byatugan. 'Let's go, Hinata.'

'B-but what about Naruto?' She asked.

'Don't worry, keep them at bay and we will do the rest,' Ino responded.

They all rushed into combat. Quite quickly the battle intensified. While Hinata, Treb, Neji and Lee where fighting their foes, a few of them got to Ino and Tim. While Tim was making handseals for the seal with his one hand, he was shooting foes down with fireballs with the other. 'This is hardly ideal work circumstances! Can we get some cover?!'

Treb made an icy barrier around them in response, they went back to cutting down foes. Then, even more enemies approached them. '128 divine cuts!' Treb ran in the middle of the group and began chopping them down like crazy, dodging al their attacks as well. After his assault, he let the survivors attack their friends using the power of the blood sword.

* * *

Ryoku fell to the ground by Retan's savage attack, none if his attacks seemed to hurt him. 'Come on, Ryoku. Show us your true power. You can't beat me without your anger. Fight like the beast you are.' Retan said while al his wounds healed.

'Never.'

Retan ignored his answer. 'I see you still carry around that trinket,' He said while pointing at Ryoku's golden medallion. 'When I'm finished with you, I'll be sure to return it to her while she begs for mercy.'

'Say that again, and I will kill you,' Ryoku said angrily.

'I'll kill her a second…'

Ryoku teleported in front of him and began punching and kicking him in a berserk rage, he then rammed him away. 'You wanted to see how a beast fights?!' Ryoku yelled. He let out a roar more beastly then a human being could produce. Together with the roar, al his wounds started to radiate a dark aura and then healed.

He then continued his assault with renewed power, only now with each punch or kick, Retan's bone's were broken and then at the same time repaired.

Ryoku then punched him upwards into the sky and teleported right in front of him to hit his face again. He then made ten shadowclones and let them all take a sword out of a dimensional hole. They al chopped in on Retan and disappeared, then reappear again to attack once more. He repeated this attack over and over again.

* * *

Lee kicked his last opponent knock out. 'There, that should be all of them.'

Treb walked toward Tim and Ino while returning the ice shield back to water. He was going to ask them something, until he saw how multiple Ryoku's where chopping Retan into pieces in the air.

'Ryoku hasn't been really honest about his powers, you know,' Tim said to him.

'S-so I see. Care to fill me in?'

'You see, the chakra that is in Ryoku's blood varies in power depending on his emotional state. Like now his anger is the source of his power. The blood also amplifies and strengthen his emotions.'

Treb looked at Ryoku with his Byatugan. 'But he can't go on like this. No human body can have so much chakra inside him. Even holders of tailed demons let out some chakra when they use their powers. He should have exploded by now!'

'That's where you're wrong. He has a little trick of avoiding that. He let all of the superfluous chakra go into his Tai- and Ninjutsu, strengthening them by an extreme amount.'

Treb looked at the rest of the group, they were staring at Ryoku's awesome display of power.

'I-incredible, he just as fast and strong as me with my five gates. Is this Ryoku's true power?' Lee said.

'Oh no, he's actually holding back. If he lets his emotions take him completely over, we wouldn't be standing here anymore.'

Ino just finished healing Naruto and looked at how the battle concluded.

Ryoku stopped his merciless attack on Retan and noticed his wounds were still healing, but only slower now. Ryoku made a series of handseals and let so many dimensional gates get around Retan that they retract him from sight. 'Enough, die! Gravity crusher!'

Retan could only let out a yelp before his bones and flesh were grinded to dust. The blood dripped, no, gushed down underneath the black hole and formed a small pool.

Ryoku then fell back to the ground and took the scroll that Retan had dropped from the ground.

'It-it's Ryoku the beast!' A person in the crowd said.

A enormous wave of fear went through the crowd, some of them tried to flee, but the remaining henchmen stopped them with the greatest effort. This gave Ryoku an idea.

He screamed once more and together what that scream, he opened several dimensional holes and let all sorts of bizarre and terrifying creatures come trough it. _I must get them out of here before this place blows…_

'This coliseum will all be the grave of you all!' Ryoku said while laughing manically.

The summoned monster rushed toward the crowd. A shock of pure terror went through the crowd and they ran to the exits. The henchmen where trampled by the panicking mass.

Ryoku let the monsters disappeared before they reached the crowd, while he went to the group.

'Where was that theatric act necessary for?' Neji asked.

Ryoku made a dimensional hole and threw Naruto trough it. 'No time to explain, this whole stadium will blow in a few seconds!'

They all ran through the hole.

* * *

They came into a forest not much farther from the coliseum. In the distant, an explosion was heard.

They all turned their attention to Naruto, who was still unconscious.

'How is he?' Ryoku asked Tim.

'Pretty bad, actually. So bad, there's only one sort of healing that can help him,' Tim said.

'That being?'

'Sexual healing,' Tim said while grinning.

He then looked at Hinata. 'Well, what are you waiting for? I ain't going to do it.'

For a moment, everyone was shocked, Hinate the most of all. Then, Treb gave him a knock on his head. 'Haha, very funny. Now tell us how he's _really _holding up,' Treb said angrily.

'Hmpf, you guys have no sense of humor. He's going to be fine, thanks to the splendid job I did.'

'Heh, don't take all the credit. He would be in a vegetated state if it wasn't for me,' Ino said.

'Anyway, can we go back to Konaha now?' Neji asked.

'Sorry, no can do. I depleted too much chakra to make a gate over such a distance,' Ryoku said.

'Fine, then we'll spend the night here. It's getting pretty late,' Treb said.

'Great idea, I'll give you guys some food I got with me,' Lee said.

'Did someone say food?'

They all looked to Naruto who was fully awake now.

'Oh jeesh, it's alive!' Tim said amused.

'Shut up, I didn't ask you anything,' Naruto responded.

'Aaw, Naruto. Don't be so cruel. After all, Ino and I did save your live.'

Naruto looked shocked. 'Ino, is this true?'

'Yes, I guess you owe him one. Speaking of that…' She turned herself to Ryoku. 'Thanks for helping me out there.'

'You owe me nothing. That guy was after me, thus this all wouldn't have happened if I wasn't there.'

'I still demand an explanation, why where these guys after you? What is organization Nemesis and what is your relationship towards them?' Treb asked

Ryoku came to the conclusion that everybody was watching him, eager to hear his answer. 'I'll tell you what I know. Nemesis is a organization well known for its inhumane experiments with ninjas. Because of this, they have a vast knowledge of chakra, bloodlines and much more. Many villages pay them good money to enchant their troops and, for the right price, even give them a bloodline. They have enough financial power to buy the fire country five times over.'

'You still haven't explained to me why they were after you.'

'That's because I don' feel like telling you,' Ryoku said grim. 'If you want answers, then you'll have to beat it out of me,' he said challenging.

'Oh, so we can be killed any time now all because of you and we don't even know why?!' Naruto said angry.

'Sue me.'

They all ate and talked until the sun set, then went to sleep.

* * *

_The pain…_

Ryoku was dreaming. The dream was a reflection of his oldest memory, he was probably just 5 years old or less. He was tied to a operation table. There were 5 vague figures around him. They all had a hand on his wrists, which were bleeding heavily.

'We're losing him!' One of the men said.

'No, he's fine, increase the chakra doze.'

'What?! But that will…'

'Just do it.'

The pain intensified more and more, until Ryoku felt like his whole body existed out of pain. His mind, heart, body and soul were filled by that one feeling. It almost hurted as much as when she…

Ryoku awakened from the dream in cold sweat. He checked his wrists, he saw the two deep scars on them. They weren't blindly cut, but cut by something slick and sharp, like a scalpel.

He stood up and walked in the woods while. After a short while of walking, he stopped and re-read the scroll Retan left behind.

"If you read this scroll, that must mean you have beaten Retan. I expected no less from my finest creation. Meet us at your village (what's left of it) in two days. Bring nobody with you or Konaha will be no more."

He sighted and decided to train somewhat, like he usually does when he is reminded of his past. He summoned 20 clones with kunai's and fought them all with his bare hands. After he was done with them, he looked in the direction of where Ino and the rest where. 'I know your there, you don't need to hide from me.'

Ino jumped down from a nearby tree. 'How did you know?'

'I didn't, I just guessed that there was someone here. What can I do for you?'

'I've been meaning to ask you something,' she said while walking closer.

'Shoot.'

'I've seen your pendant, can I ask you who that girl on the photograph is?'

Ryoku sat on the ground. 'She was my best and only friend I had in my village,' he said while staring in the distance. 'You know that one person, that's special to you, and you look up to. That nobody can replace, and give meaning to your life?'

Ino toughed about Sakura and how good befriended they are. 'Yes, I do.'

'Well, she was that person to me. I never really had any real friends. I was always seen as 'the beast', nobody really dares to come close to me. But she was the only one who saw trough that image.' Ryoku smiled as he toughed back of his memories. 'She didn't really had a good life either. But nevertheless, she was always happy, never really giving to much thought about her problems. Her biggest concern ever was how much she weighted. I wanted to be just like her, free of all my pain. The path of Shinobi might have made me very strong, but she was so much stronger than me. Never showing fear, and always be that sparkling light in time of despair.'

'What happened to her?'

A sadness came over Ryoku's face and washed away his smile. 'She was killed because of me, and I was too weak to safe her. If I only had a portion of her strength, I might have been able to stop her dead.'

'It must have been really hard for you.'

'It was and still is. After that, I left my village and wandered the world in search of my purpose, and became that what everybody expected from me to be: a beast, with neither emotion nor regret. A long time I believed that my purpose had died with her. But now I realize, that she never really died. That life just waited to give me a second chance.'

'I think I know what you mean.'

Ryoku laughed a laugh without joy. _Believe me, you don't…_

He stood back up and looked Ino in the eyes. 'Ino, can I ask you a favor?'

'Sure thing.'

'When we get back to the village, can I… hang out with you for a bid?'

A little grin came over her face. 'What, like a date?'

'Well, uuurmh, yes?'

She smiled, amused by how much effort it costed Ryoku to say that. 'Sure, I would love to.'

'Thank you,' He said relived. 'Well, I'm back to sleep, see you in the morning.'


End file.
